Swiss citizens voted yesterday to impose some of the world’s strictest controls on executive pay, forcing public companies to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation, initial result projections showed.

Foreign executives who moved their company headquarters to Switzerland to get better tax deals for their firms may find themselves paying the price for it this weekend.

A MAJOR pharmaceutical company celebrated its 10th birthday yesterday and the arrival of its Swiss boss.

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, has bought 20% of the voting shares in Roche for about 4.8bn Swiss francs (£1.94bn).