The Headquarters Economy — a part of the book Zug: The Making of a Global Hub by Dr Alexander Ressos.
The fiscal policy described in Part B attracted thousands of companies to Zug, but a register full of holding companies does not make an economy. What distinguishes Zug from the many small jurisdictions that host letterbox companies is that a significant part of the companies attracted by its taxes turned into real businesses: regional and global headquarters, research centres, trading floors and service hubs with thousands of employees. Beside them, the canton's own industrial enterprises survived, transformed themselves and in several cases became global groups in their own right. Part C describes this headquarters economy. Chapter I follows the home-grown industrial enterprises from the interwar years to the present and shows how they were absorbed into, or grew into, international groups. Chapter II describes the multinational headquarters that settled in the canton from the late 1950s, with particular attention to the life sciences cluster and to the recent arrivals of groups from Geneva and Zurich. Chapter III sets out the legal framework within which a headquarters in Zug operates: company law, the commercial register, the new transparency register, the requirements of substance and the rules on the employment of foreign staff.
This part belongs to Zug: The Making of a Global Hub by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
Home-Grown Industry and Its Transformations — conclusion
The industrial history of the canton did not end when the tax policy began. The enterprises founded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries survived the crises of the interwar years,… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe industrial base in figures
The image of Zug as a canton of letterbox companies obscures the size of its industrial base. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyLandis & Gyr: from family enterprise to global groups
Part A followed Landis & Gyr from its foundation as the Elektrotechnisches Institut Theiler & Co. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyMetallwarenfabrik, V-ZUG and Metall Zug
The Metallwarenfabrik, whose difficult birth after the failure of 1886 Part A described, followed a different path. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyBossard: two centuries of trade from Zug
The oldest international enterprise of the canton is neither a holding company nor an industrial manufacturer. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyRoche in Rotkreuz: from a small acquisition to the largest private employer
The most striking example of an industrial headquarters in the canton is the diagnostics centre of Roche in Rotkreuz. Its origins were modest. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyPaper, spinning and the end of the old industries
Not all of the canton's industrial enterprises survived. The Spinnerei an der Lorze in Baar, once the largest cotton spinning mill in Switzerland, entered a prolonged crisis from the late 1920s and… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyDiversification: a dozen clusters
The resilience of the Zug economy rests, according to Bomio, on its diversification into about a dozen industry clusters. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe skilled workforce and the apprenticeship system
The history of the coffee trade shows how quickly a cluster can form and dissolve. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyWater, energy and the utilities
The infrastructure of an industrial economy includes its utilities, whose history in Zug reflects the history of its industry. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyA Geneva comparison: industry in two cantons
The comparison with Geneva, which runs through this book, is particularly instructive in the field of industry. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyPractitioner's note: the division of Landis & Gyr as a transaction pattern
The history of Landis & Gyr after 1987 follows a pattern that recurs in the transactions of Swiss industrial groups and that practitioners in Zug encounter regularly. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyIndustry and the global minimum tax
The global minimum tax, described in Part B, affects the industrial groups of the canton in a particular way. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyPractitioner's note: acquiring a Zug enterprise
The acquisition of an industrial enterprise in Zug by a foreign group raises questions that recur in practice. The first concerns the tax consequences of the change of control. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe Multinational Headquarters — conclusion
The multinational headquarters of Zug are the most tangible result of the canton's tax policy. They began to arrive in the late 1950s, as registered seats and holding companies. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyWhat a headquarters is
The word "headquarters" covers a wide range of functions. At one end stands the registered seat of a holding company, with a board that meets a few times a year and an administrative service provider… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe life sciences cluster
The life sciences cluster of Zug is the product of four decades of arrivals. The pioneer was the American medical technology company Varian, which established its European headquarters in Zug in… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyFinancial services and asset management
The canton's relationship with finance differs from that of Geneva and Zurich. Zug was never a banking centre of international rank. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomySika and the building materials industry
Sika, the specialty chemicals company for the construction and automotive industries, was founded in Zurich in 1910 by Kaspar Winkler as Kaspar Winkler & Co. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe recent arrivals: SGS from Geneva and Vontobel from Zurich
The German retail group Metro, founded by Otto Beisheim, established its international holding company in Baar in 1974 and concentrated European functions there in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyWhy groups choose Zug: the decision in practice
The decision of an international group to place a headquarters in Zug is rarely made on the basis of tax alone. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyMoving a headquarters: the legal mechanics
The move of a headquarters to Zug from another Swiss canton, as in the case of SGS, is legally simple. The company amends its articles of association to fix its new seat. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe Geneva–Zug competition
The move of SGS from Geneva to Zug touches on a sensitive point in Swiss federalism. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe international community as an asset
The international community that a headquarters economy creates becomes an asset of the location in its own right. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe economic weight of the headquarters
The headquarters economy has made Zug the canton with the highest economic output per inhabitant in Switzerland. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe limits of growth
The headquarters economy has costs that are borne above all by the residents of the canton. The most visible is the price of housing. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe Legal Framework of the Headquarters — conclusion
Part C has described the headquarters economy of Zug. Chapter I showed that the canton's industrial enterprises, Landis & Gyr, the Metallwarenfabrik, Bossard and Roche's diagnostics centre in… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe seat and the commercial register
A company that establishes its headquarters in Zug does so, in legal terms, by fixing its registered seat in a commune of the canton and by entering that seat in the commercial register of the canton… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe requirement of a Swiss resident representative
Swiss company law requires that a company limited by shares be represented by at least one person who resides in Switzerland. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe company law reform of 2023
The revision of the law on companies limited by shares, in force since 1 January 2023, modernised several features that matter to international groups. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyNon-financial reporting and due diligence
The Responsible Business Initiative, which would have made Swiss companies liable for human rights and environmental violations by the companies they control abroad, obtained a majority of the… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe transparency register
The most important recent change in the legal framework for companies in Zug is the introduction of a central register of beneficial owners. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomySubstance and the international tax standards
The legal requirements of company law are easily met. The requirements of the international tax standards are more demanding. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyForeign staff: permits and quotas
A headquarters requires people, many of whom, in Zug, come from abroad. Citizens of the member states of the European Union and of the European Free Trade Association benefit from the free movement… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyReal estate: the Lex Koller
A foreign group that wishes to acquire real estate for its headquarters in Zug must take into account the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad, known after the Federal… Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe courts of Zug
Because a headquarters economy generates disputes, the courts of the canton of Zug decide a considerable number of commercial and company law cases. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyThe governance of subsidiaries
Many of the companies in Zug are subsidiaries of foreign groups, whose governance raises questions that differ from those of independent companies. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyDisputes and arbitration
The international groups in Zug resolve many of their disputes through arbitration. Read more Zug · The Headquarters EconomyPractitioner's checklist: establishing a headquarters in Zug
The following checklist summarises the principal legal steps for a foreign group that establishes a headquarters in Zug. It is intended as an orientation for the practitioner. Read more