Until one year ago, he was one of Swiss banking's next generation of leadership. Now, Barend Fruithof has taken an entrepreneurial leap with the agricultural machinery firm he runs. 

Barend Fruithof surprised Swiss banking last spring when he took the top job at Aebi Schmidt, a privately-held Swiss firm which sells snowplows, street sweepers, and lawn mowers.

If some industry watchers felt that the famously ambitious Fruithof would return to finance after a short stint outside the industry, he has proven them wrong: the former banker with an agriculture degree has now bought 8 percent of Aebi Schmidt's stock, the company said on Friday. 

Entrepreunurial Push

Fruithof bought the shares from Aebi Schmidt's two main investors, PCS Holding and Swiss industrialist Peter Spuhler, as well as from Gebuka, an investment vehicle. Financial details of the transaction weren't disclosed; Aebi Schmidt posted revenue of 363 million euros ($441 million) in 2016, the last publicly disclosed set of results. Its shareholder structure is now as follows

  • PCS Holding: 54 percent
  • Gebuka: 35 percent
  • Barend Fruithof: 8 percent
  • Other board members and top management: 3 percent

Spuhler, a former director of UBS who presides Aebi Schmidt's board, said the move underscores Fruithof's committment to the firm: «This definitely makes him an enterpreneur» – ironically, a move which now unites him with his former boss at Julius Baer, ex-CEO Boris Collardi (click here to read why the two fell out).

Ambitious Plans

The banker-turned-industrialist gave up nearly all his finance mandates when he joined Aebi Schmidt last year. He took a board mandate with Swiss wealth manager Zugerberg Finanz late last year, showing he hasn't entirely lost interest in finance. 

Instead, Fruithof harbors ambitious plans to spur Aebi Schmidt's growth in the U.S. as well as later in Asia, including lessening the firm's reliance on winter business – snow-clearing machines. This raises the question of whether Aebi Schmidt could list its shares in order to finance the growth.

Fruithof, who spent years as Credit Suisse's head of corporate clients courting exactly the type of firm like Aebi Schmidt, has nixed an initial public offering. He told Swiss business outlet «Handelszeitung» (in German) last year that he wasn't hired to prepare the firm for a listing – and that no such plans exist.