Interhandel

Interhandel, short for Internationale Industrie & Handelsbeteilungungen, was a Swiss conglomerate, known for its long-running disputes with the U.S. government over German ownership during World War II. Interhandel, which had both financial as well as industrial holdings was the corporate successor of I.G. Chemie, which the U.S. government had claimed was a front organization for Germany's I.G. Farben during World War II.^[1]

Interhandel was publicly traded in Switzerland from its formation as IG Chemie with a complex structure of ordinary and preference shares, which concentrated voting rights with an array of Swiss investment banks. Approximately 80% of its capital was tied up in the long-running GAF investment, with the remainder consisting of various small chemical companies, Bank Hoffman of Switzerland, a small bank in Panama and various property investments - most of which had been acquired after the end of World War II, under the control of Managing Director Walter Germann, a relative of M. Greutert, a banker and the I.G Farben representative on the I.G. Chemie board of directors.

In 1958, prior to the successful resolution of the GAF/Interhandel case in the United States, a number of shareholders who had previous links to I.G. Farben (including Industrie Bank and M. Sturzenegger) were bought out, and UBS Bank’s chairman Dr. Alfred Schafer became chairman of Interhandel.

In the years prior to this, UBS acquired approximately 50% of Interhandel shares on the open market. Upon the announcement that Interhandel would receive $122,000,000 USD in compensation for the seized shares of the former I.G. Farben U.S. subsidiaries (GAF), a tremendous uplift in the value of the Interhandel shares was realised, allowing UBS to gradually take control and absorb the cash in a 1967 merger.

The company was acquired by the Union Bank of Switzerland in 1967.^[2][3]