Martin Ebner

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Martin Ebner
Born1945 (age 78–79)
NationalitySwiss
EducationUniversity of Zurich
University of Florida
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder, BZ Bank and BZ Group
SpouseRosemarie Ebner

Martin Ebner (born 12 August 1945) is a Swiss billionaire businessman and investor from the municipality of Freienbach in the canton of Schwyz. He is the founder of BZ Bank, and the investment firm, BZ Group. Through his investment vehicle Patinex, he owns multimillion-dollar stakes in various companies, and his biggest holdings include healthcare company Vifor Pharma, software firm Temenos, and real estate investor Intershop.[1]

Life and education[edit]

Ebner grew up in Hurden near Pfäffikon SZ. He studied law at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, graduating magna cum laude as lic.iur. and earned a PhD in business administration from the University of Florida.[1][2]

Career[edit]

Before founding BZ Bank in 1985, and the investment firm, BZ Group in 1988,[1] Ebner worked for Credit Suisse, and Bank Vontobel, where he was a member of the executive board.[2]

He is a major shareholder of Helvetic Airways, a Swiss low cost airline.[3][4] In 2018, Ebner has signed a 600 million francs deal with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer for delivery of 12 new aircraft.[5]

Rise[edit]

In 1988, Ebner founded BZ Gruppe Holding Aktiengesellschaft. In addition to BZ Bank, their holdings included BZ Trust Aktiengesellschaft, an asset management company, as well as controlling interests in four investment companies founded by Ebner and traded on the stock exchange (BK Vision, Pharma Vision, Stillhalter Vision, Spezialitäten Vision). In the press, they were occasionally referred to as Ebner's "Visions", after the common component of their names.[6] In addition, over the course of time, Ebner acquired significant stakes in various public and private companies, including Alusuisse and Lonza Group, Asea Brown Boveri, Credit Suisse Group, Roche Holding, Union Bank of Switzerland, Winterthur Group, as well as Intershop Holding. Ebner was a long-term investor.[7]

Ebner focused on equities as the most promising long-term investment category. He also tried to influence the management of the companies in which he invested and on some of whose supervisory boards he sat, in the spirit of shareholder value. He also called for a reduction in the size of supervisory bodies and for management compensation to be based not only on a company's profits, but also on the risks involved. In order to assert his shareholders' rights, Ebner also took legal action in individual cases, with the proceedings against the members of the Board of Directors of the then Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) and the company itself becoming particularly well known. At times, the portfolio of investments held by BZ Group was worth over 30 billion Swiss francs. However, the share of debt capital was high.[7]

Through aggressive advertising, Ebner also tried to attract small investors as customers for BZ Bank and introduced the BZ share account for them.[8]

Crisis[edit]

The creeping decline of BZ Group Holding began with the sharp fall in share prices on the international stock markets that lasted for months after the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000/2001 and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. BZ Group, including the investment companies it managed, was hit disproportionately hard by the stock market slump due to its concentration on a small number of investments. A standstill agreement concluded with the lending banks in the summer of 2002 enabled the BZ Group to continue as a going concern. However, Ebner was forced to sell or transfer the majority of its holdings to the banks. This also affected controlling interests in the vision companies, which were transferred to Zürcher Kantonalbank.[6]

The BZ Group was left with a majority stake in the listed real estate company Intershop as its main holding. The core of BZ Group, BZ Bank, was spun off from BZ Group in the spring of 2003 by Martin Ebner and his wife Rosmarie, together with management members Alfred Böni and Ralph Stadler, and has since continued to be run separately.[9]

Recovery[edit]

Since the termination of the standstill agreement with the lending banks in July 2003, BZ Group Holding has recovered. In 2005, the holding company of the Group changed its name to Patinex AG and has been operating under this name since then. In the same year, Patinex acquired 12.5 percent of the reinsurer Converium and thus played a decisive role in the - initially hostile - takeover of Converium by the French reinsurance group SCOR. With a stake of around 8 percent, Ebner was the largest shareholder in SCOR via Patinex until the stake was sold in spring 2015. The stake in Intershop today amounts to around 33 percent. Patinex's other disclosed holdings include the Swiss listed companies Myriad, Temenos (since 2013)[10] and Vifor Pharma.[11] In the unlisted sector, Patinex holds a major stake in the Geneva-based immunology company NovImmune, among others. In 2008, Patinex acquired the Swiss airline Helvetic Airways and its associated flight school Horizon Swiss Flight Academy.[12]

The Ebner couple ceded 70 percent of their stake in BZ Bank to Graubündner Kantonalbank as of July 1, 2022.[7]

Assets[edit]

According to Bilanz's richest list, his wealth in 2021 is 3 to 3.5 billion Swiss francs.[13]

Personal life[edit]

He is married to Rosemarie, and lives in Wilen, Switzerland.[1][14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Forbes profile: Martin Ebner". Forbes. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b "BZ Bank - Daily at the Round Table". www.bzbank.ch.
  3. ^ "Swiss quality all along the line". www.helvetic.com. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  4. ^ "Financier Digs Deep to Boost Airline". finews.com. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Woher kommt dieser plötzliche Grössenwahn, Herr Ebner?". Blick (in German). 21 July 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Ebner muss seine Visionen verkaufen". nzz.ch. 2 August 2002. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Pierre Weill (13 June 2022). "Eins Aussenseiter mit grossem Einfluss aufs Establishment". nzz.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  8. ^ "Kopf der Woche: Martin Ebner, Bankier der BZ-Bank". memobase.ch. 12 April 1997. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  9. ^ "Martin Ebners Neuanfang". swissinfo.ch. 31 July 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  10. ^ Jorgos Brouzos (4 January 2013). "Ebner baut Beteiligung an Temenos aus". handelszeitung.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  11. ^ "Bedeutende Aktionäre". swiss-exchange.com. 31 July 2014. Archived from the original on 31 July 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  12. ^ Norman C. Bandi (25 August 2010). "Martin Ebner lässt nun auch Piloten ausbilden". handelszeitung.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  13. ^ "Reichstenliste: Ein höchst einträgliches Jahr für Banker". finews.ch. 25 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  14. ^ "The rise and fall of Martin Ebner". The Economist. 8 August 2002.
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