By Isabel Demetz and Paolo Laudani
(Reuters) -Swiss expansion services provider DKSH, mostly active in South East Asia, expects to benefit from the new tariffs on China, its CEO Stefan Butz said on Wednesday.
“We think that the whole tariff discussion with China is going to have the effect that more trading is happening with South East Asia,” Butz said during a post-earnings press call.
As a result, the Zurich-based company expects to see more investments into the region in the coming years.
DKSH, which helps companies expand into other markets, makes roughly 70% of its sales in South East Asia, a region of growing importance as some companies seek to shift their production away from China to avoid a hit from geopolitical spats.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new 10% tariffs on Chinese imports, which led to China filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization.
While the tariffs have caused widespread uncertainty in the region, the decoupling trend from China is not new, Butz said in an interview with Reuters.
DKSH itself has been looking into expanding its healthcare business in India, where it is already present through its performance materials segment, he added.
“We have people on the ground exploring and investigating if we could buy something,” Butz told Reuters. They had already identified one potential target company, he said, but refused to give further details.
Earlier on Wednesday, DKSH reported annual core earnings before interest and taxes of 343.1 million Swiss francs ($365.8 million), in line with market expectations, with its healthcare unit making up the lion’s share of its business.
The group also said it expected 2025 core earnings to be higher than last year, without giving a concrete figure.
($1 = 0.9129 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Isabel Demetz and Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)
