Swiss billionaire bets on train builder weathering pandemic

Peter Spuhler transformed Stadler Rail AG from a company with a workforce of 18 people to a global powerhouse whose roughly 11,000 employees build everything from high-speed trains to trams to shunting locomotives.

The billionaire is now betting that the firm is well placed to prosper despite a pandemic.

His family office—PCS Holding AG—is buying about a quarter of the 5.5 million shares that RAG-Stiftung is selling for about 210 million Swiss francs ($217 million), filings show. The move will boost Spuhler’s stake to around 41.5%, a holding valued at more than $1.6 billion Wednesday.

“I am fully convinced of its long-term oriented, successful business model,” Spuhler said in a statement.

Stadler Rail’s shares have fallen about a fifth this year, almost wiping out the gains since its 2019 initial public offering.

Spuhler became interim chief executive officer last week following the unexpected exit of Thomas Ahlburg. The company has suspended targets for 2020 due to coronavirus.

The appointment has reassured some.

It’s “hard to think of a better person than Dr. Spuhler to steer Stadler’s operations in the current environment,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Edward Maravanyika said in a note.

Spuhler took control of Stadler Rail in 1989 when he convinced a bank to give him an unsecured loan of about 5 million francs and ran it for the next three decades. Its products range from diesel-electric locomotives to city trams as well as made-to-order vehicles catering to more extreme terrain. That includes the carriages that shuttle passengers up gradients of as much as 250 degrees to Jungfraujoch, a railway station in the Swiss Alps that’s more than 3,400 meters (11,150 foot) above sea level.

Through his family office, Spuhler’s other holdings include stakes in auto-supplier Autoneum Holding AG and textile machinery-maker Rieter Holding AG. But Stadler Rail remains his most valuable listed asset and his latest financial commitment highlights his relatively rare status in Swiss business circles.

“Peter Spuhler is one of Switzerland’s last business patrons,” said Tim Schlaepfer, who co-manages 100 million francs of equities for 3V Asset Management in Zurich. “He stands in contrast to the very well-paid managers of Switzerland’s other major companies.”