Accounting & Audit Firms

The average Swiss accounting and audit firm is valued at 3.5 - 5.5× EBITDA on a statutory (tax-based) basis and 4.5 - 7.0× EBITDA in actual transactions. The spread between statutory and deal multiples represents an arbitrage opportunity for informed buyers. The current market trend is consolidation, with an arbitrage gap rated as medium. In this niche the multiple sits on recurring audit and accounting mandates, so the price depends on how many mandates are ordinary rather than limited audits, whether the licensed auditors stay after the sale, how many clients could opt out of the limited audit, and how much fiduciary and tax revenue comes with the audit book.

Key valuation drivers include: A legally required service: companies above the ordinary-audit thresholds, and all others that do not opt out, must have their accounts audited (Art. 727 and 727a CO); A large recurring base of 90,751 statutory audits in 2025, 11,414 of them ordinary audits (FAOA). Factors that can compress valuations include: Fragmentation: 619 of 1,670 licensed audit firms (37%) have a single licensed auditor; Small firms are marginal in ordinary audits: firms with no more than two licensed auditors are 62% of licensed firms but perform 2.5% of ordinary audits. Deal multiples typically range from 4.5 - 7.0× EBITDA, but actual prices vary significantly based on customer concentration, management quality, revenue predictability, and geographic reach within Switzerland's 26 cantons.

It depends on the definition. The Federal Audit Oversight Authority (FAOA) licensed 1,670 audit firms at the end of 2025, down from 1,738, and 10,277 individuals; 19 firms are under state oversight and may audit public-interest entities. Those firms performed 90,751 statutory audits in 2025. The wider statistical class of accounting, audit, tax and fiduciary enterprises (NOGA 692000) counted 12,772 enterprises with 57,411 employees in 2024 (BFS STATENT), but it does not separate audit firms from fiduciary offices. auditorstats.ch counts 1,653 licensed audit firms and 91,420 audited companies in the commercial register (September 2026). The ~8,000 firms given in the February 2026 edition of this report match none of these sources.

In audit, succession shows up in the FAOA's licence data. Every year a large share of firms let their licence lapse — 25% of those whose licence expired in 2025, and between 19% and 27% over the past five years — which the FAOA considers likely to reflect retirement, cessation of business and mergers. The potential sellers are mostly small: 619 licensed firms have a single licensed auditor, and few young auditors are entering, with only nine licence holders under 26. Mid-tier groups such as BDO, OBT, Balmer-Etienne, Grant Thornton and Berney record the practices they absorb in the commercial register. No published source measures owner ages or succession plans at Swiss audit firms, and the February 2026 edition's figures — 80%+ of small practices run by owners over 55, 25-30% of Treuhand Suisse members needing a successor within 5-7 years, and bookkeeping practices selling at 0.5-1.0x revenue — had no source and are withdrawn. A buyer should check whether the target's licensed auditors stay after the sale, since the firm's licence and its mandates depend on them; how many mandates are ordinary rather than limited audits; how many clients could opt out of the limited audit; and how much fiduciary and tax revenue comes with the audit book. Deal multiples for the sector typically run 4.5 - 7.0× EBITDA.

Four trends define the sector in 2026: (1) Fewer licensed firms, more licensed auditors — The FAOA licensed 1,670 audit firms at the end of 2025, down from 1,738, while the number of licensed individuals rose from 10,016 to 10,277. (2) Flat audit volume, concentrated at the top — Audits performed slipped from 91,002 in 2024 to 90,751 in 2025. (3) Opting out became stricter — Companies with no more than ten full-time positions can waive the limited audit if all shareholders agree. (4) Technology and private capital reach audit — The FAOA reports that the five largest firms under state oversight increased their automated tools and techniques by 39% in three years and that the use of AI continues to spread.

The principal acquisition risks are: (1) Opting out limits the market: only 91,420 of 582,334 companies that could appoint an auditor have one (auditorstats.ch, September 2026); (2) Tighter enforcement: 112 reprimands and five licence withdrawals in 2025, against 80 and two a year earlier; (3) Large firms dominate ordinary audits: five firms with more than 100 licensed auditors conduct 61.5% of them. Buyers should conduct thorough due diligence on customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and key-person dependencies. Deal multiples of 4.5 - 7.0× EBITDA may be discounted for firms with elevated risk profiles.

An indicative cost split for a Swiss audit and accounting firm is: Personnel (auditors, accountants, tax specialists): 50%, Office & infrastructure: 10%, Technology & audit software: 8%, Licensing, liability insurance & quality management: 4%, Training & continuing education: 3%, Other operating costs (travel, marketing, administration): 5%, Profit margin (EBITDA): 20%. Indicative split for a mid-sized Swiss audit and accounting firm; no published source measures cost structures or margins in the sector, and the February 2026 edition's owner profit extraction of 25-35%, Big Four technology costs of 12-15% and audit margins of 25-30% had no source and are withdrawn. The published figures point to people as the main cost: KPMG reported CHF 561.6m of net revenue with 2,627 employees in its 2025 financial year, about CHF 214k per employee, and the FAOA notes the largest firms' growing use of automated audit tools. Quality management under ISQM 1 and 2 and the FAOA's inspection and reporting duties add costs that are largely fixed. For a buyer, the question is which costs follow the licensed auditors, because the firm's licence and its audit mandates depend on them.

Switzerland's audit and accounting firms cluster in five regions: (1) Zurich (ZH) — The national centre: 2,368 of 12,772 accounting, audit, tax and fiduciary enterprises and 15,015 of 44,449 full-time equivalents in 2024 (BFS STATENT), 6.3 per firm against a national 3.5. PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, BDO and Grant Thornton are seated here. (2) Basel (BS/BL) — 715 enterprises, but Basel-Stadt's 287 report 3,805 full-time equivalents, 13.3 per firm, consistent with Ernst & Young AG's registered seat in Basel. (3) Lake Geneva and Valais (GE/VD/VS) — 2,537 enterprises and 7,024 full-time equivalents — Geneva 1,025, Vaud 1,086 and Valais 426. (4) Central Switzerland (LU/ZG/SZ/NW/OW/UR) — 1,765 enterprises and 4,515 full-time equivalents, with Zug (678 firms) and Lucerne (516) the largest. (5) Eastern Switzerland (SG/TG/GR/AR/AI) — 1,526 enterprises and 4,237 full-time equivalents, led by St. Gallen with 704 firms. Because the largest firms are seated in Zurich and Basel, those cantons show far more full-time equivalents per enterprise than the rest of the country.