SWISS BANK SELLS S. AFRICAN STOCKS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34087, 26 February 1976, Page 17

SWISS BANK SELLS S. AFRICAN STOCKS

<N’.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) ZURICH. February 25. Worried over what has been happening in Angola, one of Switzerland’s largest banks has quietly sold all of its own holdings of South African stocks, according to Swiss banking sources in Zurich. They have not identified the bank in question, but say that its executives are deeply concerned over possible future developments in the entire whitecontrolled area in tie southern part of Africa.

The bank is said to have begun selling three weeks ago, as the Marxist M.P.L.a. forces, aided by thousands of Cuban troops heavily armed with Soviet equipment, were still mopping up resistance, and well before European and other governments recognised the new Angolan People’s Republic. The sales are believed to have been responsible for the recent drop of South African goldmining, financial, and industrial shares on the London market. Bankers rarely talk about

their business, but one bank officer admitted today: “There is now a net selling situation in Switzerland for South African stocks.” Some Swiss bankers, however, say that they consider fears of adverse political developments in southern Africa as exaggerated. Most banking sources agree that South Africa’s basic financial outlook is good, but regard the political situation as laden with potential problems.