Want to invest in the best family businesses in the world? Try Switzerland

It might come as little surprise given the wealth of the country, but Swiss listed family businesses outperform not only non-family businesses but also family businesses in the rest of the world, according to new research.

Credit Suisse found that the share price of listed family businesses in Switzerland outperformed non-family businesses in the country by 9% annually over a ten year period from 2006. They also outperformed their family business counterparts in other parts of the world by 4% a year during the same time period.

The study looked at the performance of 18 listed family businesses with an average market cap of $22 billion. Big named companies on the list included Roche, Richemond, and the Swatch Group. Much more detail is presented here.

Credit Suisse also looked at the performance of global family businesses against that of non-family businesses and found the former outperformed as well. On a sector adjusted basis, says Credit Suisse, this outperformance equalled an annual average of 4.5% between 2006 and 2015. There’s much more detail here, and Family Capital will be looking at some of these “family alpha” aspects in more detail over the coming months.