Head offices
| Photo | Company | Address | Headquarters size |
|---|---|---|---|
 | NovartisForum 3 (headquarters building, Diener & Diener) | Forum 3, Novartis Campus, CH-4056 Basel | — |
 | RocheHeadquarters, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd | Grenzacherstrasse 124, CH-4070 Basel, Switzerland | — |
Sizes are the companies’ own figures, as shown on each profile with the source. “—” means the company does not publish one.
Other notable offices in Basel
Offices of companies headquartered elsewhere, from each company profile.
| Company | Office | Address |
|---|---|---|
| HenkelHeadquarters: Düsseldorf, Germany | Henkel — BaselOpened 2026 | Baloise East building (3rd floor), BaselSource: · |
Basel in headquarters history
- 2024Roche · Research centre in the northern part
Roche opened its Pharma Research and Development Center in Basel, with around 1,000 laboratory and office workplaces, a CHF 1.2 billion investment.
- 2022Roche · Building 2: 205 m, 3,200 workplaces
On September 2, 2022 Roche inaugurated Building 2, a 50-floor, 205 m tower that cost CHF 550 million. Employees from offices around Basel moved to the centre of the site.
- 2006Roche · A plan for one clear site
Roche decided to put research and development in the northern part of its Basel site and the global headquarters in the southern part, along Grenzacherstrasse.
- 1998UBS · UBS: one bank, two registered offices
Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation, whose merger was announced on December 8, 1997, became UBS. UBS AG keeps two registered offices: Bahnhofstrasse 45 in Zurich and Aeschenvorstadt 1 in Basel.
- 1996Novartis · Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz become Novartis
The merger was announced on March 7, 1996. In February 1997 the old logo was changed at the Novartis St. Johann site in Basel, the former Sandoz works.
- 1970Novartis · Ciba and Geigy merge
Ciba and Geigy merged on October 20, 1970 — the “Basel marriage”. Ciba-Geigy's research later moved from Geigy's former headquarters site in Rosental to Klybeck (1989).
- 1896Roche · Founded in Basel
F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co was founded on October 1, 1896, in Basel, Switzerland. Fritz Hoffmann had seen the cholera outbreak in Hamburg and believed medicines should be made industrially and sold internationally.
- 1886Novartis · Kern & Sandoz on the St. Johann site
Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz completed their first factory in spring 1886 on an approximately 11,000 m² lot in the northwest of Basel: an office with a laboratory, three sawtooth-roofed production halls and a boiler house. Ten years later the grounds covered more than 63,000 m². Today's Novartis Campus stands on the same spot.
- 1872UBS · Basler Bankverein, Aeschenvorstadt 5, Basel
Basler Bankverein, the root of Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC), opened its first office in 1872 in the “Haus zum Wilhelm Tell” at Aeschenvorstadt 5 in Basel.
- 1859–64Novartis · Ciba's roots: a silk dyer turns to synthetic dyes
Alexander Clavel began producing the synthetic dye fuchsine in his silk-dyeing factory in Basel in 1859, and in 1864 he opened the first dye factory in Klybeck — the site that became Ciba's.
- 1758Novartis · Geigy, a trading house in Basel
Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus founded the trading company J.R. Geigy in Basel to deal in “materials, chemicals, dyes and drugs of all kinds”. Geigy was later headquartered in Basel's Rosental area.
Questions
Which big companies have their headquarters in Basel?
On eciffo, 2 of the biggest companies have their head office in Basel: Novartis and Roche.
Which big companies have notable offices in Basel besides their headquarters?
Henkel (Henkel — Basel, Baloise East building (3rd floor), Basel).