BVZ Holding: Shareholder structure

This post gives an overview of the shareholder structure of BVZHolding.

Roughly 28% of all shares are held by the Swiss Meier family (now by the third generation).

One of its members, Dieter Meier who is a famous musician from the 70s, used to own a further 15% stake but sold it between 2020 and 2021. This stake was not disclosed until the death of his father, Walter Meier, in 2010 where he and his brother inherited his ~25% stake in BVZ.

The brother of Dieter, Balthasar Meier, passed away in 2024, inheriting his shares to the third generation. He was a long-time board member of BVZ Holding. After his death, several newspapers discussed what would happen with his stake (and whether BVZ would become chinese) see https://insideparadeplatz.ch/2024/06/14/kaufen-chinesen-die-gornergrat-bahn/. I think that his heirs will hold onto the shares just as Balthasar Meier did.

Simplified family tree of the Meier family.

Two funds managed by DJE Investments own a further 7.5%. DJE - Zins & Dividende owns roughly 5%, while DWS Concept DJE Globale Aktien owns 2.5%. Both owns the shares in constant size since roughly 2007 and 2016, respectively. Only the take DJE-Z&D is included in regulatory fillings, as the other is below the 3% threshold. While their share in the company is large for a public investment fund, the position only consitutes a minor position <1%/<3% of the funds’ assets. For now it remains unclear to me how the DJE-Z&D aquired such a big stake within a single year.

In addition, several investors have build (and exited) smaller stakes in the company. Hupertus Hatlapa, an investor who sold his family’s maritime business, aquired a 5% stake.

The management/board of directors (swiss companies have both) only holds a minimal number of shares.

Throughout time, the shareholder base was very stable as the following graph shows.

As the Swiss stock exchange only requires disclosure of ownership if the positions exeeds 3%, it is likely that multiple investors with a stake slightly below this threshold exist.

For historic reasons, I suspect some could be local swiss communities (Einwohner- and Burgergemeinden) or families from Zermatt. The Burgergemeinde is an “interesting” (say archaic), where only individuals born (independent on where they are living now) can decide on some matters of the community. The Burgergemeinde Zermatt is the largest shareholder (before BVZ Holding) in the Zermatt Bergbahnen.

After having a first glance, I think that the history of the different Zermatt families is a story of its own.