Six Swiss Exchange, one of the leading European exchanges is now keen to attract Indian lifesciences sector primarily because the sector has intellectual property strengths. It is among the key factors that Six Swiss Exchange considers along with financial track record, and reputation.

A team representing the Six Swiss Exchange was here in India at Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and New Delhi.The team particularly shortlisted Bengaluru which was known for its strong IP focus and having presence of biotech cluster, said Tarun Gupta, official, Six Swiss Exchange, India representative and Co founder CEO, T&A Consulting.

“We would not be able to disclose the names at this point of time, except that these companies were engaged in  healthcare IT, generics and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) space”, said Marco Estermann, Head Issuer Relations, SIX Swiss Exchange.

The exchange with over US$ 1,335 billion of free float market capitalisation representing over 40 per cent of the European market capitalisation of listed lifesciences companies and with P/E ratios for industrials as measured for the year to June 2014 averaging above 18 times has many advantages to offer.

“The life sciences industry accounts for approximately one third of the total market capitalisation of Six Swiss Exchange. With approximately 43 per cent of the European life sciences market capitalization, we are the leading European exchange in this sector”, stated Estermann.

The Swiss financial center and Six Swiss Exchange are keen on the life sciences companies and it already has global drug majors like  Novartis, Roche and Actelion are listed. Further pharma giants such as Pfizer, Abbott, and Eli Lilly are secondary listed and actively traded on SIX Swiss Exchange, he said .

“With nearly 60 industrial companies listed on Six Swiss Exchange, the industrial sector is, together with the financial and life sciences industry, one of the most important industry on our exchange”, said Estermann,.

Further, Switzerland which accounts for  world’s highest number per capita of biotech and medtech companies, gives listing on its bourses  wanting to diversify their investor base the unique advantage of access to the huge Swiss capital market.

In the Swiss capital market, out of the US$ 5.5 trillion assets under management, about US$ 2.2 trillion is allocated to shares. There are over 2000 pension schemes active in Switzerland, managing around US$ 800 billion.

Many companies chose Six Swiss Exchange for their listing, as the CHF (Swiss currency) is well placed to meet their need for stable access to a unique pool of liquidity, he said.

T&A Consulting is SIX Swiss Exchange’s official representative in the Indian market, responsible for increasing outreach. In addition, Swiss based SIX Swiss Exchange representatives also regularly travel to India to meet with interested listing candidates, advisors as well as owners of businesses.

“For Indian companies looking to raise money in Europe, Six  Swiss Exchange enables excellent valuations and high visibility, combined withthe extremely strong placement power of Swiss banks to produce superior results. The exchange also provides access to a highly experienced investor base and extensive analyst coverage of the sectors. Also, SIX Swiss Exchange allows confidential filing and a maximum 4-week documentation review process, thereby facilitating a quick listing,” he added.