Corporate Finance

We advise SMEs on all types of equity and debt issues, including pre-IPOs, IPOs, rights issues, private investments in public equity (PIPE deals), bridge loans, mezzanine loans and M&A. We always serve as the overall project manager in these transactions.

Our experts work with clients to put together a team of select advisers and coordinate all parties involved, such as business owners, boards of directors, senior management, lawyers, auditors, FINMA representatives, issue and paying agents, central securities depositories and certified advisers.

Our senior executives have an average of 25 years of experience in all facets of the finance industry and have completed over 300 transactions in Switzerland, the UK, the US and Sweden. We have filed and registered some 40 prospectuses with various financial market regulators.

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Investor Relations

Effective Investor Relations requires developing and implementing an impactful communications strategy in order to reinforce your company’s credibility and attract quality investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders. Investor Relations also involves building and maintaining a network of contacts and promoting your company’s investment case to banks, financial institutions and retail investors.

We can advise you on all aspects of Investor Relations, put you face to face with potential investors and help you arrange investor events. Moreover, our experts will provide personalised recommendations on the best way to leverage the new, cost-effective marketing channels that are rapidly emerging in the field of Digital Marketing – especially social media.

Digital Marketing

The digital disruption, which includes Digital Marketing, is still in its infancy. If you want to take your company public through an IPO, there are many benefits to be had with Digital Marketing. The most obvious one is a much lower investor acquisition cost, which is the total expense your company incurs in acquiring a new equity investor.

Digital Marketing is the use of the internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, search result ads, e-mail ads, promoted Tweets, influencers and other channels to reach investors. A considerable advantage of this new way of marketing is that it can combine traditional passive marketing with feedback from a target group. Pushing aside traditional marketing, it constitutes a new way of approaching investors and provides fresh avenues for understanding how investors behave.

The target groups that have best embraced Digital Marketing are Millennials and Generation Z – the next generation of asset owners. These individuals think and invest differently, and are accustomed to buying all types of products and services with their smartphones. We are convinced that Digital Marketing will be the primary way to attract retail investors in the future.

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Corporate Governance

As part of a public listed company, you must ensure that your communications are accurate, complete and transparent. The only way to achieve this is by remaining informed, well-structured and prepared. We can help you comply with all applicable laws and regulations, listing requirements and Corporate Governance codes. This service is usually provided as part of an overall package together with our Investor Relations services.

Corporate Governance is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. It essentially involves balancing the interests of a company’s many stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, partners, financiers, government and the community.

Elaborx Academy©

When our clients apply for a listing and are being evaluated under our due diligence process, their boards of directors and senior management must complete our Elaborx Academy© executive education programme. This programme is also available to trading participants and our Certified Advisers. We offer some elements of the programme free of charge to industry associations and SME-focused banks in order to increase deal flow and identify potential long-term business partners. Client education will be important in establishing a more vibrant SME market in Switzerland.

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The Importance of SMEs

SMEs play an extremely important role in the modern economy. They form the cornerstone of what is emerging as a highly promising, attractive innovation ecosystem. Economists around the world have recognised the vital contribution SMEs make to economic development.[1] These enterprises are a key driver of GDP growth and help ensure the efficient flow of money throughout the economy. SMEs are what governments largely rely on to boost their economies. And the inverse is also true – SMEs thrive when the economy as a whole is doing well. When economic conditions are volatile, they face a greater risk of going under since they generally operate with little cash on hand.[2]

According to a 2017 OECD report, Enhancing the Contributions of SMEs in a Global and Digitalised Economy, SMEs account for approximately 99% of all firms in OECD countries and around 70% of total employment. They are also major contributors to value creation, generating between 50% and 60% of value added on average. In Switzerland, only 0.8% of companies are considered large – SMEs constitute 99.2% of all firms and dominate the country’s business landscape.[3]

One major challenge SMEs face is obtaining the financing they need to grow. They are also disproportionately affected by stringent collateral requirements and initiatives to align with international accounting standards. At the same time, financial institutions have less experience lending to SMEs and often perceive them as riskier than the evidence shows them to be.[4]

In light of the above, we have developed a platform devoted entirely to an innovative kind of financing solution: crowdfunding. Equity-based crowdfunding is expanding rapidly (by 52% in 2018[5]), underpinned in part by a lack of specific crowdfunding legislation. Recently, the Swiss government has taken steps to make the regulatory framework friendlier to the industry, particularly to financial technology companies.[5]

[1]Theoretical and Applied Economics, Vol. XXIII (2016), No. 3(608).

[2]http://www.freightarea.com/Blog-Details/Why-Small-And-Medium-Sized-Enterprise-SME-Is-Important-In-ImportExport/6

[3]https://www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/financing-smes-and-entrepreneurs-23065265.htm

[4]https://www.ebrd.com/what-we-do/sectors-and-topics/why-small-businesses-matter.html

[5]Crowdfunding Monitor, Luzern University of Applied Sciences and Arts, 2019.

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Focus

Our business model is built around the needs of SMEs, with a core focus on the pre-IPO and IPO phases as well as other types of equity financing. We deal with companies and their shares – not derivatives like structured products and ETPs. The pre-IPO and IPO phases are critical for any growing firm and take up a lot of senior-management and board-member attention.

At Elaborx©, we provide expert advice to decision-makers in the process, showing them opportunities to (re-)structure their balance sheets – especially when growth capital is needed for specific business development goals. A solid debt and equity structure, when actively managed, can make your company more independent and open up new optionalities. Depending on how successful you are in positioning your company and presenting a viable long-term financing plan, your costs and the extent of shareholder dilution could vary significantly.

Ecosystem

The Swiss market for listing SMEs is largely underdeveloped, especially when compared with the SME exchanges in the UK and Nordic countries. This is a great business opportunity for us but also a challenge, since Switzerland’s financial ecosystem needs enough participants to create sufficient liquidity for SMEs wanting to go public. Many of these participants are not yet on the map. We therefore intend to fill the gap with bespoke services for SMEs in the areas of Investor Relations, Corporate Governance and Digital Marketing.

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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Criteria

ESG criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria consider how a company performs as a steward of nature; social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and the communities where it operates; and governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls and shareholder rights. We intend to meet all ESG-related requirements and restrictions at all times, and have adopted internal policies in this regard.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Securities

Our firm is based in Zug, which is home to many high-growth fintech companies – especially in the areas of blockchain and DLT Securities. If BX Swiss starts offering listing and trading services for DLT Securities, we will also embrace this new channel and provide an additional route for SMEs to raise capital. However, will not change our core business focus on SMEs and their shares – our services will cover equity-related DLT Securities only. We are closely monitoring developments in this area.

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Jean-Pierre Conrad

Mr. Conrad, age 61, is a versatile management professional with several years in executive functions. He started his career in the banking industry in Switzerland. He then worked in a number of sectors including clinical testing, building materials, natural resources and apparel distribution. Mr. Conrad held a number of senior positions responsible for corporate finance activities and business development with multinational corporations such as Unilabs AG, Glencore International AG, Xstrata AG and Charles Vögele Holding AG. He currently is involved in a number of private ventures including the agricultural commodity sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Mr Conrad is a director of MG Finance SA, a private asset management company in Switzerland and a Board member of Elaborx.

Thomas Rauch

Head of Admission Board. Mr Rauch, 54 (MSc Economics & Finance), has over 20 years of experience in investment banking and asset management. He began his career as a sell-side equity analyst for international top-tier investment banks, with a focus on Swiss and European small- and mid-caps. After several years in the equity markets, Mr Rauch moved to the asset management industry where he held positions including investment manager at GAM and CIO & portfolio manager at Asset Management Partners (a former Partners Group affiliate & FO). Mr Rauch is fluent in German, English and French.

Jan Eldenmalm

Corporate Governance Officer. Mr Eldenmalm, 48, has 15 years of experience in regulatory transformation, compliance and corporate governance. He began his career in 1999 with a position at Speed Ventures, a leading start-up incubator with offices in nine countries. In 2004, he moved to London and co-founded Consuit Ltd, a provider of regulatory transformation services. From 2011 to 2020, Mr Eldenmalm worked in various senior positions at Capgemini SA. In 2020, he returned to growth capital and SMEs. Mr Eldenmalm also supports the life-science community in Basel, focusing on university-driven start-ups and early phase companies.

Mats Löfgren

Head of Business Development. Mr Löfgren, 58, has over 25 years of experience in investment banking, particularly in Corporate Financ and M&A. From early on in his career, Mr Löfgren knew he wanted to pursue an entrepreneurial track; he set up his first company in 1991. In 1996, he began providing advisory services to SMEs in their pre-IPO and IPO phases - a role he still plays today. Mr Löfgren brings in-depth knowledge of and experience with the challenges that SMEs faces during their various stages of development. In 2014, Mr Löfgren moved to Switzerland in order to capitalise on his SME experience in Sweden and the UK.

Peter Dahinden

Chief Financial Officer. Mr Dahinden, 58, began a degree programme at the Swiss Hotel Management School in Luzern in 1984; in 1990, he enrolled in a continuing education programme at the Swiss Expert Association for Audit, Tax and Fiduciary (EXPERTsuisse) and graduated in 1992. In 1997 he was appointed managing director of Breves Treuhand AG in Zug. At the same time, he obtained a post-graduate management degree from Zurich Business School. Mr Dahinden has over 30 years of experience in accounting, audit and tax and is a board member of several Swiss and foreign companies. He is fluent in German, English and French.

Mangold AB
The independent securities firm Mangold is offering financial services such as securities trading, Corporate Finance, Issuing Services, Asset Management and commissioned research to both companies and private individuals. Mangold is a member of all three SME-focused stock markets in Sweden; Nasdaq Stockholm, Spotlight Stock Market, and Nordic Growth Market, as well being a derivative member of Nasdaq Stockholm. The firm is one of the leading liquidity providers and Certified Advisers on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. Mangold is also a clearing member and issuing institution at Euroclear Sweden.

Mangold is listed at Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market. The company’s market cap is approximately CHF 80 million. Through the affiliated companies Skandinaviska Kreditfonden AB (27.5% ownership), Resscapital AB (25%) and QQM Fund Management AB (25%), Mangold and their partners in those companies, has close to CHF 700 million in assets under management.

Mangold, based in Stockholm, is Elaborx second largest shareholder. Within the SME segment, Mangold is a leading securities firm with over 20 years of experience in the Swedish SME market, the most mature in Europe. Our partnership with Mangold involves an equity investment as well as the joint development of services and access to Mangold's resources.

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BX Swiss AG

BX Swiss AG, established in 1884, is a Swiss stock exchange regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). BX Swiss is owned exclusively by Börse Stuttgart GmbH – the ninth largest stock exchange in Europe by market capitalisation – since 2017. BX Swiss has been continuously expanding its product range since 2018 and currently manages listings and admissions to trading for some 30,000 securities. The BX Swiss intends to expand its SME segment, called Swisscaps, and to that end has entered into a collaboration agreement with Elaborx© whereby we will help develop and market that segment.