SNB's Elusive German Investor May Be Clue to Its Big Share Gain

The Swiss National Bank’s biggest private shareholder sold 10 percent of his stake in 2017, capitalizing on the thinly traded stock’s mystifying rally.

Theo Siegert, a German businessman and professor, held 6,070 shares -- or 6.07 percent of the SNB -- as of Dec. 31, down from 6,720 a year earlier, the central bank said in its annual report published Thursday. Siegert has been a shareholder since at least 2008 and had steadily increased his stake every year through 2016.