Internal Combustion Engines

The average Swiss Internal Combustion Engines company is valued at 3.0 - 4.5× EBITDA on a statutory (tax-based) basis and 4.0 - 6.0× 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 declining, with an arbitrage gap rated as low. Actual valuations depend heavily on recurring revenue share, customer diversification, management depth, and equipment modernity.

Key valuation drivers include: A genuinely scarce global capability: very few companies anywhere can design large-bore two-stroke marine propulsion, and WinGD AG in Winterthur is one of them; The component chain around it is Swiss too — Accelleron Industries AG in Baden for turbocharging, Kistler Instrumente AG in Winterthur for combustion pressure measurement, DUAP AG in Herzogenbuchsee for injection. Factors that can compress valuations include: Machinery is one of only two Swiss tech product groups still contracting — exports down 2.1% in H1 2026 against total tech exports of +1.7% and electrical machinery at +5.5%; Consolidation is already visible in the statistics: NOGA division 28 lost 21.3% of its establishments between 2012 and BFS STATENT 2024 while employment stayed essentially flat at -1.1%. Deal multiples typically range from 4.0 - 6.0× 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 combustion engine companies, and the roughly 480 firms cited here is an estimate rather than a measurement. The activity has no NOGA code of its own: large-bore engines, turbochargers, injection systems and reciprocating compressors all sit inside NOGA division 28, manufacture of machinery and equipment, and the BFS publishes STATENT only at division level. What is measured is division 28, and it carries the structural story: BFS STATENT 2024, published 20 August 2026, records 1,968 establishments and 79,054 employees, with employment essentially flat since 2012 at -1.1% but the establishment count down 21.3%. The same output from a fifth fewer sites is what consolidation looks like in the statistics. The commercial register is the reliable check on any individual name, and here it is unusually consequential: four of the eight companies listed in the February 2026 edition of this report do not exist under the names given. There is no Sauber Motorsport AG — the entity registered in Hinwil (ZH) is Audi F1 Campus AG, SHAB 6 August 2026. There is no Wärtsilä Switzerland AG in Winterthur; what remains is Wärtsilä Services Switzerland AG in Frauenfeld (TG). There is no Jenoptec SA in Peseux. And there is no Franke Motorenwerke AG — the Aarburg entity is Franke Holding AG, a kitchen and sanitary systems group with no engine business. Two further names are close but inexact: the register holds WinGD AG rather than "Winterthur Gas & Diesel", and Liebherr Maschinen Bulle AG rather than "Liebherr Machines Bulle SA". What survives is a smaller, more coherent niche centred on marine and stationary propulsion — WinGD AG, Accelleron Industries AG, Burckhardt Compression AG, Kistler Instrumente AG, DUAP AG — rather than on vehicle engines.

Succession in Swiss combustion propulsion is being decided against two curves running in opposite directions. The road-vehicle end is contracting on a measurable line: average CO2 emissions of new Swiss passenger cars fell to 101.6 g/km in 2025, around 11% in a year, new vans and light commercial vehicles from 192.4 to 174.9 g CO2/km, and battery-electric vehicles reached 20.8% of new heavy commercial vehicle registrations, far above the European average. The marine and stationary end is being pulled the other way by the 2023 IMO Strategy, which requires zero or near-zero GHG fuels to reach at least 5% — striving for 10% — of international shipping energy by 2030 and carbon intensity to fall at least 40% by 2030. A fleet that must run on methanol or ammonia needs new engines. Which curve a business sits on is therefore the first question a buyer will ask, and the seller should answer it with the order book rather than with a description of the technology. Beyond that, three things set the price. The first is the aftermarket. A large engine runs for decades and its parts, overhaul and retrofit revenue is annuity-like and far higher margin than the original unit; separating that stream out and showing its installed base and renewal rate is usually worth more than any argument about growth. The second is the engineering bench, and this niche is thinner than most. Combustion development, tribology and large-bore mechanical design sit with individuals, do not transfer with the balance sheet, and cannot be recruited quickly in Switzerland — an owner who cannot name the successor for each discipline is selling a discount. The third is input cost. Section 232 duties of 10-50% on steel, aluminium and copper have applied since April 2026, and an engine block, a turbocharger housing and a compressor are made of exactly those materials; on top of that the US has applied 12.5% to Swiss tech goods since the end of July 2026. Swissmem reports a quarter of tech industry companies posting negative EBIT margins. Owners should separate aftermarket from original equipment, evidence the installed base, name the successor for each engineering discipline, show how metal cost is passed through, and allow two to three years of overlap. Deal multiples for the sector typically run 4.0 - 6.0× EBITDA.

Four trends define the sector in 2026: (1) Four of eight names in the previous edition are not in the register — There is no Sauber Motorsport AG — the entity registered in Hinwil (ZH) is Audi F1 Campus AG, SHAB 6 August 2026. (2) The Swiss position is marine and stationary propulsion, not vehicle engines — WinGD AG builds two-stroke marine propulsion in Winterthur, one of very few companies anywhere that can. (3) IMO policy is the demand case, and it has fixed dates — The 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships targets net-zero from international shipping by or around 2050, with indicative checkpoints of at least 20% (striving for 30%) by 2030 and at least 70% (striving for 80%) by 2040 against 2008. (4) The road-vehicle end is contracting on a measurable curve — Average CO2 emissions of new Swiss passenger cars fell to 101.6 g/km in 2025, around 11% below the prior year.

The principal acquisition risks are: (1) Electrification removing the road-vehicle market entirely on a visible curve — new Swiss van and light commercial vehicle CO2 fell from 192.4 to 174.9 g/km in 2025, about 9% in a single year; (2) US tariff escalation: 39% in August 2025, capped at 15% in November 2025, Section 232 metal duties from April 2026, and 12.5% on Swiss tech goods since the end of July 2026, 2.5 percentage points above the EU rate; (3) Ownership of the Swiss capability is largely foreign, and design work follows the parent: three of the strongest names here are subsidiaries or listed spin-offs whose engineering location is a group decision. Buyers should conduct thorough due diligence on customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and key-person dependencies. Deal multiples of 4.0 - 6.0× EBITDA may be discounted for firms with elevated risk profiles.

The typical cost breakdown for a Swiss Internal Combustion Engines firm is: Raw Materials & Components (castings, forgings, electronics): 40%, Personnel Costs: 28%, Equipment Depreciation: 9%, R&D Expenditure: 8%, Other Operating Costs: 11%, Profit Margin (EBITDA): 4%. Indicative split for a Swiss combustion propulsion business. Metals dominate the material line and the tariff timeline lands directly on them: Section 232 duties of 10-50% on steel, aluminium and copper have applied since April 2026, and an engine block, a turbocharger housing and a compressor cylinder are made of exactly those materials. On top of that the US has applied 12.5% to Swiss tech goods since the end of July 2026, 2.5 percentage points above the EU rate, following 39% in August 2025 and a 15% cap in November 2025. Development cost carries a larger share than in general machinery because dual-fuel and alternative-fuel programmes are running in parallel with the existing product range. Swissmem reported machinery exports down 2.1% 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), while BFS STATENT 2024 shows the containing NOGA division 28 down 21.3% in establishments since 2012 with employment flat at -1.1%. These benchmarks are important for buyers assessing operational efficiency and margin improvement potential post-acquisition.

Switzerland's main Internal Combustion Engines clusters are: (1) Winterthur (ZH) — The densest concentration of large-engine capability in Europe relative to its size. (2) Baden and Aargau (AG) — Turbocharging. Accelleron Industries AG is registered in Baden with Accelleron Schweiz AG and Accelleron Verwaltungs AG at the same seat — the SIX-listed turbocharging business, and the component without which a large-bore engine does not reach its rated output. (3) Fribourg and Bern (FR, BE) — Engines and injection. Liebherr Maschinen Bulle AG builds diesel and gas engines in Bulle, with Liebherr-Baumaschinen AG in Reiden (LU) nearby, and DUAP AG makes nozzles, pumps and injectors in Herzogenbuchsee. (4) Zurich Oberland and Thurgau (ZH, TG) — Motorsport development and marine service. Audi F1 Campus AG is registered in Hinwil — earlier editions of this report named "Sauber Motorsport AG", which does not appear in the register — and Wärtsilä Services Switzerland AG in Frauenfeld (TG), the remaining Swiss Wärtsilä entity after the Winterthur company left the register. Regional concentration affects valuations, as companies in established clusters benefit from supplier ecosystems, specialized talent pools, and industry networks.