Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach,
CStJ
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of c ...
(born 1948) is a UK-based Swiss financier. In May 2020, the ''
Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' estimated his net worth at £978 million.
Early life
Urs Schwarzenbach was born in Thalwil in 1948, and raised in Küsnacht. He is the son of a print shop owner.
Career
![Culham Court - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Culham_Court_-_geograph.org.uk_-_510801.jpg)
Schwarzenbach set up Interexchange, the largest
foreign exchange
The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all as ...
dealership in Switzerland. Through its success, he has bought well over £300m of property in the UK, in Australia, a palace in Morocco, £17m of assets in the aviation field and the
Grand Hotel Dolder
The Dolder Grand (formerly known as Grand Hotel Dolder) is a 5 star superior hotel in the Swiss city of Zürich. It is located on Adlisberg hill, some from, and above, the city centre. Built in 1899, the hotel spreads out over and offers 173 ro ...
in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
.
He has his own
polo
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...
team, the
Black Bears, which has some 600 ponies, with 350 in Australia and 250 in the UK.
He backed the
racing
In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...
-themed restaurant
Café Grand Prix in
Mayfair
Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...
, London, but this went into liquidation in 2004. In 2005, Schwarzenbach was estimated to be worth around £900m but, according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, he was ranked 87th with an estimated worth of circa £850m.
In 2007, Schwarzenbach outbid other foreign buyers to acquire
Culham Court, a riverside estate downstream of Henley-on-Thames on the Berkshire bank. Schwarzenbach bought the estate from Paddy and Annabel Nicoll for £35 million. Mrs Nicoll's father is
Sir Martyn Arbib
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
, former head of the Perpetual fund management company, who bought the estate as a wedding present for her in 1997 for £12 million.
Coincidentally, Culham's connections with the world of finance run deeper still; Arbib acquired the property from Felicity Behrens, wife of the banker
Michael Behrens, who lived there for nearly half a century from 1949 to 1996.
Schwarzenbach's development of the Culham Court estate still continues with the extension of the existing deer park with over 4 kilometres of wrought iron deer fencing, a mile long "London" drive through beech woodland to the main road, the 2010 £8 million acquisition of three cottages and the original walled gardens which will be reinstated to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for the main house, a new ha-ha, and a security system including a "hard" room.
The latest creation is a maze requiring the planting of 20,000 mature yew bushes; this part of the 20-year plan that has been devised for the gardens and grounds. Another property acquired for £2m in 2010, and situated on raised ground that overlooks Culham Court, has been demolished and Culham Chapel was built in its place. Symm, the Oxford-based building company undertaking all the work on the Culham estate, now sponsors the
Hambleden
Hambleden is a small village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. The village is around west of Marlow, and around north-east of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The civil parish also includes the villages of Fingest and ...
Horse Trials.
In 2008, it was reported in the press that Schwarzenbach had bought nearby Fawley Court for £22 million. Another substantial riverside property on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames and once owned in the nineteenth century by a Scottish banker, it was sold in controversial circumstances by the
Congregation of Marian Fathers
The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary ( la, Congregatio Clericorum Marianorum ab Immaculata Conceptionis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae) is a Catholic male clerical religious congregation fou ...
, a Polish religious community which had no further use for it. During 2012, extensive building works continue on the main house yet again with Symms continuing to be the main beneficiary of the contract and work at the two lodges adjacent to the A4130 at the main entrance to the "London drive" are being completed after well over a year and some interesting underground developments. In 2012 the Schwarzenbachs revoked their consent for the permissive footpath that had run alongside the Thames in front of Culham Court as part of the Thames Path for many years.
Schwarzenbach has paid for the high and low voltage overhead electricity network within the boundaries of Culham estate to be placed underground.
VAT fraud and art trafficking with Galerie Gmurzynska
In 2013/14, Schwarzenbach was investigated by the FCA (Federal Customs Administration) for alleged VAT fraud totalling some ten million Swiss francs and art trafficking. Under Swiss law, owners of artworks do not have to pay import charges until works of art are formally brought into the country, i.e. they come out of storage and are officially transferred. On Tuesday 16 April 2013, Schwarzenbach's Hotel Dolder in Zurich, which had been displaying a lavish art collection, was raided by Swiss customs officials. This action was simultaneous with a raid on nearby
Galerie Gmurzynska
Galerie Gmurzynska is a commercial art gallery based in Zurich, Switzerland, specializing in modern and contemporary art and work by the Russian avant-garde. It became a popular venue for international collectors seeking Russian art that was ba ...
on the suspicion of supplying the five-star Hotel Dolder with imported artworks valuing 75M Swiss Francs without paying duty.
[
The Swiss authorities seized a large number of documents during their raid. Gmurzynska filed a complaint to prevent their inspection, but the Federal Court has ruled that in a criminal investigation of this kind where there is reasonable suspicion, the prosecuting FCA can demand to see papers it considers relevant to the case.
The case has been covered in several international outlets including 'Die Welt'.
In October 2016 the Swiss Customs Directorate finalised a compelling case that Schwarzenbach in effect had legally exported artefacts for a value of at least 130 million CHF and smuggled them back into Switzerland. Schwarzenbach eventually admitted the charge and also accepted to pay the VAT amounting to ten million CHF. However, by October 2016 he was still objecting to pay the fine of 4 million Swiss francs.
]
Dolder Grand Hotel
He owns the Dolder Grand
The Dolder Grand (formerly known as Grand Hotel Dolder) is a 5 star superior hotel in the Swiss city of Zürich. It is located on Adlisberg hill, some from, and above, the city centre. Built in 1899, the hotel spreads out over and offers 173 ro ...
, a 5-star Zurich hotel, which cost him SFr 440 million.
Australian property
Schwarzenbach owns about 50,000 hectares of farmland in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia, through his Romani Pastoral Company. Most of this is between Harden and Jugiong
Jugiong is a locality and town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River near its confluence with Jugiong Creek. in the Hilltops Council Local Government area, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated just off the Hume Highway, by road, about 30& ...
, and includes the polo estate Garangula, as well as Redbank, a house once owned by the impresario Robert Stigwood
Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream, Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions like ''Hair'' ...
.
Morocco
He bought part of Palais Layadi, a 19th-century palace set in a 4,000 square meter compound in Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
, since at least 2008.The main parts of Palais Layadi (Palais Soleiman) which include the reception area still belong to the moroccan Segueni's family.
Philanthropy
Schwarzenbach has supported the internal and external refurbishment of the Venerable English College in Rome, as well as its engagement of a research fellow and project archivist.
Personal life
Schwarzenbach lives at Culham Court near Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...
and sponsored the rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
gallery of the River and Rowing Museum
The River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, is located on a site at Mill Meadows by the River Thames. It has three main themes represented by major permanent galleries, the non-tidal River Thames, the international s ...
in Henley which is named after him. He owns other estates and farms in England, a 10,000 acre sporting estate in Scotland and the largest country estate on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
.
His wife, Francesca Schwarzenbach-Mulhall, is a former Miss Australia
Miss Australia was the title for the winner of the Miss Australia Quest or the Miss Australia Awards, which ran from 1954 until 2000, when the last Miss Australia was named. From 2002, the Miss World Australia contest has been held, and the Miss ...
, born in Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, and is a godmother of Lady Louise Windsor
Lady Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor (born 8 November 2003) is the elder child of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Forfar, both members of the British royal family. She is a granddau ...
, the daughter of the Earl of Wessex
Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex (the lands of the We ...
.
The couple have two children. Their daughter Sascha is married to Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
Olympian Clifton Wrottesley, 6th Baron Wrottesley
Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, 6th Baron Wrottesley (born 10 August 1968), is an Irish sportsman and British peer and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Early life
Wrottesley was born at Hatch Street, Dublin, in 1968 to t ...
. They live in St Moritz
St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...
, Switzerland, and London, England, and have four children.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzenbach, Urs
1948 births
Living people
Swiss billionaires
Swiss businesspeople
Swiss people of German descent
People from Thalwil
British businesspeople
Commanders of the Order of St John
Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom