Watchlist: October 2026

One thing I was wishing for in the past was the ability to sit on my hands and do nothing regarding my investments. So far, this year has been successful in this regard. My last transactions were in March buying Deutsche Rohstoff and Vermillion Energy in the fallout of the outbreak of the Iran war.

But ever since then, I stood still collecting dividends. Due to multiple one-of effects the amount of dividends received this year is substantially higher than last year. Compagnie de l’Odet, Bollore and Rocket Internet have all paid out large special dividends. Moreover, my largest holding BVZ Holding AG has increased its dividend by more than 60%.

Nevertheless, I tend to come back to searching for potential interesting companies to invest in. Here I would like to present my most recent ideas, all of which are at an early stage and none have made it into the portfolio so far.

Recently, my particular focus was on Switzerland. I like the stock market because it comes with no (for the german-speaking part) or little (for the rest of the country) language barrier regarding company publications and has many companies with a long operating history.

While I knew about the Swiss OTC-Market OTC-X run by the Berner Kantonalbank for some time I only recently looked at some of the companies in greater detail. While this market is hard to access for people from outside Switzerland, I am now seriously contemplating whether the hassle of opening a local brokerage account with a Swiss bank might be worth it. Not all banks there offer access to the OTC-X or offer their services to non-residents and those who do come have steep price tags attached to their services. All banks require additional fees from customers residing outside of Switzerland. Moreover, the Swiss withholding tax of 35% is deducted from all dividend payments and the reclamation works different than with my current German broker. Overall, the physical trip to Switzerland which would be required to open an account seems like the least tedious part. I will keep you updated.

There has not been much action in the existing portfolio. With higher crack spreads, the refining company H&R saw its share price rise a little and brought some attention to the company. I attended the online AGM of Clere where management offered good and open answers to the questions raised by fellow shareholders. No (public) process has been made regarding the strategic review at Edding’s loss making business unit.

But now on to the new companies:

MCH Group AG

The operator of the famous Art Basel Art fair. MCH, short for Messe SCHweiz, is the owner of the Art Basel franchise, which takes place multiple times per year in different locations around the world (besides Basel) such as Miami or Qatar. Moreover it is the owner of the actual fair grounds in both Basel and Zurich. The company has a market cap of around 220 million CHF and around 100 million CHF of debt. Interestingly, the majority of this debt is non-repayable as it was loaned to the company by the canton of Basel in exchange for operating the fair ground. On the asset side of the balance sheet the company has around 90 million CHF of cash and properties valued at around 130 million CHF (although their historical costs amount to almost 900 million CHF). Lupa Investment Holdings LP (led by James Murdoch) now holds roughly 42% of all shares right besides the canton of Basel-Stadt with around 38%. Lupa Investment invested in a capital increase during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have to admit that I know next to nothing about the art market which makes it impossible for me to judge the business outlook of the company. However, I find the Art Basel franchise (likely the reason Lupa invested in the company in the first place), the non-repayable debt and the swiss fair ground assets an interesting combination.

Villars Holding AG

Villars Holding is listed on the Swiss SIX exchange and has a market cap of around 60 million CHF. The company used to operate a chocolate factory in the french-speaking part of Switzerland but has divested all of these assets long ago. It now operates a small chain of gas stations, a small bakery chain and owns a mix of different properties. The latter is the reason why I find this stock worth a look. The buildings are mostly located in Fribourg in the french-speaking south west of the country. Among them are two former chocolate factories which have been repurposed to be let out as office space. Additionally, the company own some vacant lots in the city centre of Fribourg to convert them into a office building with a parking garage underneath. This conversion has been dragging on for more than a decade due to slow municipal planing regarding zoning. This zoning needs to be completed so that a land swap, which is necessary to align land ownership, can take place. I would not except any action here in the near term. The area of one of the former chocolate factories is in the urban Lausanne area and, if converted to a residential use, might be worth far more than under its current use. However, as can be seen from their land plot in Fribourg, changes like these take a long time if they occur at all.

Roughly five years ago, the company has converted a vacant lot near one of the factories to build two apartment building with around 150 apartments. For this it has taken on around 30 million CHF of debt which stands against roughly 20 million CHF of cash at the end of 2025. Using an estimate of around 400 thousand CHF per apartment, these building could be worth 60 million CHF, the entire market cap of the company. Lastly, the company is building around 20 luxurious apartments near Geneva to be completed by the end of 2027 with prices I guess to be between 1 to 1.5 million CHF per apartment.

Especially the last two projects are why I consider this company worth a closer look. All other assets, such as the former factory sites are an add-on and might provide further upside if they are converted.

Pilatus Bahnen AG

Pilatus Bahnen operates one of the many alpine railways/cable cars listed on the OTC-X exchange mentioned earlier. Looking at the financials listed on the OTC-X website, the stock does not look attractive with a P/B ratio above 6 and P/E ratio of 35. Yet, when looking at the financial statement one can see that these ratios are achieved by building huge provisions for future capital expenditure. If considering these provisions as equity and excluding their expense in the P&L, the company looks very different.

The company operates a cog railway and two cable car lines going to the summit of Mount Pilatus, a mountain near the city of Luzern. In addition, the company operates two hotels and some restaurant at the summit. The company has a market cap of around 80 million CHF and net cash of a little less than 30 million CHF. As the company is debt free this results in an EV of 50 million CHF. This stands against an operating cash flow of 15 million CHF and an annual profit (excluding provisions) of 12 million CHF.

One reason why I do not like the SIX-listed railway stocks JungfraubahnHolding and Bergbahnen Engelberg-Trübsee-Titlis is their high dependency on foreign tourists to take their ride. Both offer access to a unique mountain scenery with glaciers, yet, other than the nice view, there is not much else to do. So I would argue that many locals take their rides only very infrequently and that most customers are one-time visitors.

However, Mount Pilatus is much more accessible for hiking, offering more reasons to return multiple times. Moreover, rather than a remote location, access to the summit is very easy from the city of Luzern. In my point of view this is also important for tourists, so they get to see a mountain top while on their Swiss vacation without a long journey beforehand.

As a result, around 50% of all customers come from Switzerland, while the rest is roughly equally split between American, Asian, and European visitors.

As with all mountain railway companies, the business is capital expensive and does not offer much opportunities for visitor growth. Looking at past annual reports, the company has been profitable (with the exception of covid-affected 2020) and has been steadily paying a dividend.

Fokus Wohnen

Is one of the german real estate funds (offene Immobilienfonds) which closed redemptions of their shares this year. With the ongoing discussion about expropriation of residential real estate companies in Berlin, German real estate might seem uninvestable. However, with many investors trying to get rid of their shares (Fondsanteile) of these funds, the price quoted on the stock exchange might decrease to distressed levels and might provide interesting entry points if on takes a longer investment horizon. At least for now the shares trade well below their last appraisal valu (which of course should not be taken as is) and the stop of the redemptions was taken to leave some liquidity in the fund.