Business Valuation: New Energy Systems

The average Swiss New Energy Systems company is valued at 5.5 - 7.5× EBITDA on a statutory (tax-based) basis and 7.0 - 10.0× EBITDA in actual deal transactions. The spread between statutory and deal multiples represents a key arbitrage opportunity for informed buyers. The current market trend is rising, with an arbitrage gap rated as medium. Actual valuations depend heavily on recurring revenue share, customer diversification, management depth, and equipment modernity.

Key valuation drivers include: A domestic market created by law and growing on a six-month clock: roughly 1,860 local electricity communities existed by the end of June 2026, six months after they became legally possible (Swissolar, 2 September 2026); Federal money already committed rather than promised — the Buildings Programme and the new Impulse Programme committed CHF 636.4 million in 2025, of which CHF 516.4 million was paid out. Factors that can compress valuations include: The manufacturing anchor has gone. Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG is registered in Thun as in Liquidation (SHAB 29 June 2026) and the corporate domain no longer resolves; Swiss module manufacturing at scale no longer has a champion; No official data exists for the niche at any level. It is split across NOGA divisions 27, 43 and 35, so every market size, company count and employment figure in circulation — including in this report — is an estimate. Deal multiples typically range from 7.0 - 10.0× EBITDA, but actual prices vary significantly based on customer concentration, management quality, revenue predictability, and geographic reach within Switzerland's 26 cantons.

There is no official count of Swiss new energy systems companies, and the roughly 2,500 firms cited here is an estimate rather than a measurement. The activity has no NOGA code of its own — it is split across division 27 (electrical equipment), division 43 (electrical installation) and division 35 (energy supply) — and the BFS publishes STATENT only at division level. What can be measured bounds only one part of it: BFS STATENT 2024, published 20 August 2026, records 851 establishments and 27,437 employees in the whole of division 27, so the manufacturing half of this niche sits inside that. The far larger remainder is installation work, which is why the roughly 38,000 employees carried here should be read as a split rather than a total: most of that headcount is electricians, not factory workers. The commercial register is the reliable check on any individual name, and here it changes the picture materially. Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG — the Swiss operating company behind the name that headed the February 2026 key-player list — is registered in Thun as in Liquidation, SHAB 29 June 2026; the parent Meyer Burger Technology AG remains registered in Thun and the corporate domain no longer resolves. Four further corrections follow: Helion Energy AG is registered in Cham (ZG), not Zuchwil (SO); SYNHELION AG is registered in Zurich with Lugano as a branch, not the other way round; there is no 3S Solar Plus AG, the active Thun entity being 3S Swiss Solar Solutions AG; and the hydrogen company is registered as H2 ENERGY AG. Two substantial Swiss names were missing altogether and are added here: Studer Innotec SA in Sion (VS) and Climeworks AG, registered in Opfikon (ZH) rather than Zurich. Meanwhile the demand side has been rewritten by law: Swissolar extrapolates roughly 1,860 local electricity communities Switzerland-wide by the end of June 2026, six months after they became legally possible.

Succession in Swiss new energy systems is being decided in a niche where the demand curve and the industrial base point in opposite directions. On the demand side, the market is being created by law and it is moving fast: local electricity communities became legally possible at the start of 2026, and Swissolar's release of 2 September 2026 extrapolates roughly 1,860 of them nationwide by the end of June. Federal money is committed rather than promised — CHF 636.4 million under the Buildings Programme and the new Impulse Programme in 2025, CHF 516.4 million of it paid out — and on 2 September 2026 the Federal Council approved reports on both seasonal storage and the 80% of energy lost in the building stock. On the industrial side, the register records Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG in Thun as in Liquidation. For an owner selling into this, three things decide the price. The first is what the revenue actually depends on. Feed-in arrangements for solar electricity change from 2027, and a business whose margin is a function of the current regime is selling a policy position, not a market position; a buyer will discount for that unless the recurring service and maintenance base is separated out and shown on its own. The second is the installer qualification. In a niche where the constraint is qualified electricians rather than orders, the retiring owner is frequently the qualification the firm trades on, and the transfer of licences, certifications and utility approvals needs to be documented and staffed before the process starts. The third is customer concentration in a market of very small units: local electricity communities average 7.2 participants and 78% of participants only consume. Serving them is a volume business with utility-grade compliance obligations, and the buyer will want to see the acquisition cost per community and the churn, not the total count. Owners should present the recurring base separately from the subsidy-driven installation revenue, name the individuals holding each qualification, and allow two to three years of overlap. Deal multiples for the sector typically run 7.0 - 10.0× EBITDA.

Four trends define the sector in 2026: (1) The Swiss operating company behind the sector name is in liquidation — Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG is registered in Thun as in Liquidation, SHAB 29 June 2026. (2) Eighteen hundred local electricity markets in six months — Local electricity communities became legally possible in Switzerland at the start of 2026. (3) Federal policy moved on four fronts in a single week — On 2 September 2026 the Federal Council approved its report on synthetic energy carriers and seasonal energy storage for winter security of supply, approved a report on cutting the 80% of energy lost in the building stock, and declined a state financial guarantee for the hydrogen transit pipeline — leaving that to the (4) The register corrects four names and adds two that were missing — Helion Energy AG is registered in Cham (ZG), not Zuchwil (SO).

The principal acquisition risks are: (1) Subsidy and tariff dependence cuts both ways. The feed-in regime for solar electricity changes from 2027, and a business modelled on the current arrangement is modelling a policy, not a market; (2) The Federal Council declined a state financial guarantee for the hydrogen transit pipeline on 2 September 2026, leaving financing to the co-owners of Transitgas AG — Swiss hydrogen infrastructure has no federal backstop; (3) Chinese module and cell pricing that removed the economics from Swiss and European manufacturing, as the Meyer Burger liquidation entry in the register illustrates. Buyers should conduct thorough due diligence on customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and key-person dependencies. Deal multiples of 7.0 - 10.0× EBITDA may be discounted for firms with elevated risk profiles.

The typical cost breakdown for a Swiss New Energy Systems firm is: Equipment & Components (panels, batteries, inverters): 38%, Personnel Costs (installation and engineering): 28%, R&D and Technology Development: 8%, Logistics & Project Management: 10%, Other Operating Costs (permits, insurance): 9%, Profit Margin (EBITDA): 7%. Indicative split for a Swiss new energy systems business. The mix differs sharply between the two halves of this niche: an installer carries labour as the dominant line and is constrained by qualified electricians rather than by orders, while an equipment manufacturer carries materials and cells. Subsidy design sits behind the revenue on both sides — feed-in arrangements for solar electricity change from 2027, and the Buildings Programme with the new Impulse Programme committed CHF 636.4 million in 2025, of which CHF 516.4 million was paid out. Swissmem reported electrical machinery exports up 5.5% in H1 2026 against total tech exports of +1.7%, with capacity utilisation of 81.1% in Q2 2026 against a long-run average of 85.6% (2015-2025). Note that the manufacturing anchor of this niche has changed: Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG is registered in Thun as in Liquidation, SHAB 29 June 2026. These benchmarks are important for buyers assessing operational efficiency and margin improvement potential post-acquisition.

Switzerland's main New Energy Systems clusters are: (1) Bernese Oberland and Solothurn (BE, SO) — Thun is the historic centre of Swiss solar manufacturing and the place where its restructuring is recorded: Meyer Burger Technology AG and Meyer Burger Research AG remain registered there, Meyer Burger (Switzerland) AG is registered as in Liquidation, and 3S Swiss Solar Solutions AG builds solar roofs and facades. (2) Western Switzerland and Valais (VD, VS) — Storage and power electronics. The Leclanché group — Leclanché SA, Leclanché E-Mobility SA, Leclanché SBS SA and Leclanché Technologies SA — is registered in Yverdon-les-Bains, and Studer Innotec SA exports off-grid inverters from Sion. (3) Greater Zurich and Zug (ZH, ZG) — Fuels, capture and installation at scale. H2 ENERGY AG and SYNHELION AG are registered in Zurich, Climeworks AG in Opfikon, Designwerk Technologies AG in Winterthur, and Helion Energy AG — one of the largest Swiss installers — in Cham (ZG), not Zuchwil (SO) as earlier editions of this report stated. (4) Ticino (TI) — Present, but as a branch rather than a seat. SYNHELION AG, succursale di Lugano is registered in Lugano (SHAB 12 September 2025) while the company itself is registered in Zurich. Regional concentration affects valuations, as companies in established clusters benefit from supplier ecosystems, specialized talent pools, and industry networks.