Thomas Gottstein founded consulting firm, profits from Sunrise IPO – Inside Paradeplatz

When UBS was on the verge of collapse, Zurich's business elite showed Marcel Ospel, the administrator, their opinion of his actions.

She banished him from his beloved Crown Hall. Ospel also became an outcast at the Schönenberg Golf Club.

Tempe Passati. Thomas Gottstein seems to be in a new mood – even though his “CS” is no longer there. He just started his own company.

Called Thopago Advisory – like Thomas Patrick Gottstein – and headquartered in Seefeld, Zurich, it has 100,000 francs of fully paid-up capital and explains its purpose:

“Providing financial advisory services to natural and legal persons and partnerships in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, evaluation, feasibility studies, strategy, financing, capital markets solutions, public offering and restructuring.”

Gottstein Back to the Roots. After studying economics at CS University, the Zurich native has risen to the ranks of classic investment banking. His biggest coup is the advice he and his team gave on Glencore's IPO.

Now it's another IPO that Gottstein wants to use. He is looking for wealthy clients interested in Sunrise shares. US parent company Liberty plans to take Swiss Telekom subsidiary IPO.

While UBS and JP Morgan are active as advisors on the Liberty side, Gottstein is on the buy side. When his spokesman was asked yesterday, he said that he does this with partners.

Gottstein had to spend a long waiting period to begin his “comeback.” After CS's CEO position expired in July 2022, a six-month notice period continued, followed by a one-year “non-compete” clause.

The spokesman said Gottstein had been “free” since the end of January 2024. “He is now doing what he can.”

Finma has ongoing safeguard proceedings against Gottstein and other senior former CS persons. It's about Greensill supply chain funds. CS was forced to stop this abruptly under Gottstein on March 1, 2021, and CS customers are at risk of losing billions.

Gottstein spoke to “Sir” Lex Greensill by phone shortly after taking over as CEO of CS in February 2020. The newly appointed director of Paradeplatz Bank assured the London-based Australian financier that CS “would not let him down”.

In the fall of 2020, Gottstein's risky wife, Lara Warner, gave Greensill Capital a three-figure million loan, despite CS risk specialists warning against it.

At the time the loan was granted, an Australian judge had already stated that insurance coverage for Greensill funds could expire after a period of six months.

This was also the case on March 1st. According to their own statements, Warner and Gottstein did not learn of the loss of insurance coverage until days before the explosion.

The Finma application is no barrier to Thomas Gottstein getting started on the new Thopago, the spokesman said yesterday.

The Economic Crimes Prosecutor's Office in Zurich has filed a case against several former CS directors Open investigation. It is not known whether Thomas Gottstein is one of the suspects.