In reply to tolipanebas
[quote] SN failed simply because SR did not live up to any of its previously signed contracts with the Belgian government! <hr></blockquote>
I think you'll find the only "contract" they didn't fulfill was for the final $200m agreed with the Belgian government in lieu of raising the share holding. How long would that money have kept SN going anyhow? And SR didn't pay it as it went into liquidation.
[quote] Note that all these companies were unprofitable for a very long time before SR stepped into them <hr></blockquote>
Exactly. It was certainly unwise to invest in these companies in the first place, but who can say they would have survived this long without the investments by SR. What is 100% clear though is that SR would not have failed had they NOT thrown millions of CHF into these forever loss-making companies.