Of the 83 composition moratoriums open in Switzerland on 4 September 2026, 35 are registered in Vaud — 42 per cent of the national total against the canton's 10.8 per cent share of audited companies. Zurich, with 15.7 per cent of audited companies, has five.
Geneva recorded 405 corporate bankruptcies between 1 January and 4 September 2026 against Vaud's 208, yet holds three open composition moratoriums to Vaud's 35.
Müller Technologie AG of Frauenfeld absorbed RTE AG on 31 August 2026, taking on CHF 1.45 million of assets against CHF 2.67 million of third-party liabilities; the notice records the licensed audit experts confirming free equity covering the transferring company's capital loss and overindebtedness.
1Press-Reported Deals-86% WoW
615Distress Events+13% WoW
1Startup FundingCHF 1.6M
8Succession Signals-47% WoW
1001New Registrations+7% WoW
2481Board Changes+10% WoW
Switzerland has 83 composition moratoriums open today. Thirty-five are in Vaud: 42 per cent of the country's live restructuring caseload in a canton holding 10.8 per cent of its audited companies. Zurich, half again as large by company count, has five. Geneva has three.
The obvious reading is that Vaud fails more. It does not. Its bankruptcies this year run at 1.09 times what its size predicts, which is parity; Geneva's run at 1.74, on 405 bankruptcies to Vaud's 208. So the difference is not how often companies fail around the lake — it is what happens next. In Vaud a failing company tends to end up in a process with a commissioner, a deadline and a creditor negotiation. In Geneva it tends to be wound up. For a distressed buyer that is the whole difference between a situation you can approach and an estate you can only bid into.
Two filings this week were never announced. Ila Group AG, a Bern holding vehicle seven weeks old, doubled its capital and took 100,000 shares of Cardio Bern AG as a contribution in kind — a cardiology practice into a group, paid for in the group's own paper. And Lipag AG of Domat/Ems, building and cleaning tank installations since 1973, split its filling station and the land under it into a new company and handed its own shareholders the shares. One is a roll-up starting; the other is a family business getting ready for something.
A third filing closed something long since announced. STAIGER and Badertscher told the market in May 2025 that they would merge "in the second half of 2026"; on 4 September the register struck Badertscher Rechtsanwälte AG and moved CHF 2.99 million of assets across. Four of this week's nine register filings state the acquirer already owned every share, so the week's real supply is thinner than nine filings make it look — and most of it never had a press release at all.
The bankruptcy that was absorbed instead of filed
On 31 August the Frauenfeld register recorded Müller Technologie AG taking over the assets and liabilities of RTE AG, also of Frauenfeld, on a merger contract of 26 June. RTE brought CHF 1.45 million of assets against CHF 2.67 million of third-party liabilities — roughly CHF 1.2 million of negative equity. A Swiss board facing that must notify the court unless it can restructure.
It restructured. The notice records the licensed audit experts confirming the absorbing company holds freely disposable equity covering the transferring company's capital loss and overindebtedness, and that one shareholder owns both, so no capital increase was needed. RTE sold recycling and transport equipment; Müller Technologie builds road-rail vehicles. Both carry a board of two, a family shareholder and the same Frauenfeld auditor. Had the group chosen the other path this would have been a bankruptcy notice, and the register is the only place either outcome was ever going to appear.
Pre-Deal Signals — moves that precede transactions
Aug 31
Gaia Tech AGBE· Life Sciences & Pharma
Capital increase (CHF 20,000 → CHF 114,522 (+472%))
bullish
Aug 31
Mettraux Radiatech SAVD· Automotive & Mobility
Registered business purpose broadened (la société a pour but le commerce de refroidisseurs, échangeurs et radiateurs dans tous domaines, ainsi que leurs applic)
neutral
Aug 31
Opterion Health AGBL· Life Sciences & Pharma
Capital increase (CHF 30,700 → CHF 102,600 (+234%))
bullish
Procurement Prints — federal awards
Aug 31
B. Braun Medical AGLU
B. Braun Medical AG, the Swiss arm of German medical-device group B. Braun, wins a CHF 20.4M infusion technology contract with Universitätsspital Zürich, locking in a key hospital supply relationship for critical-care consumables.
award 2 on our record · 2 tracked total · CHF 25M lifetime
CHF 20.4M
Aug 31
SURFACE systems + technology GmbH & Co KG
SURFACE systems + technology GmbH & Co KG wins a CHF 1.77M contract with ETH Zürich’s D-CHAB to supply an integrated UHV cluster for pulsed laser deposition and sputter deposition of thin films, reinforcing its niche foothold in advanced vacuum deposition tools for Swiss research.
Realisierung und Betrieb öffentliche Ladeinfrastruktur
CHF 0K
The Tape — 4 transactions
Press reported in the mediaReg commercial-register filing, value = net assets
Sep 4
PRESS
Legal 230← Neur.onFR
Legal 230, a Paris-based legal-translation group, acquired Neur.on of Fribourg, reported 4 September by La Liberté. Neur.on automates legal translation, so the buyer is taking a technology layer into an existing service business rather than buying a client book. Terms were not disclosed and no filing has yet reached the commercial register — the Fribourg entity remains registered as it was. It was the only press-reported Swiss deal of the week, against nine that reached us from the register.
STAIGER Rechtsanwälte AG← Badertscher Rechtsanwälte AG
STAIGER and Badertscher announced on 14 May 2025 that they would combine into a Zurich firm of some 60 lawyers, effective "the second half of 2026". The register dates it. Beat Badertscher, the name partner, left the board on 7 August; the merger contract followed on 19 August; on 4 September the firm was struck, CHF 2.99 million of assets and CHF 2.07 million of liabilities passing across. Same shareholders both sides, so no price.
Lipag AG has cleaned, inspected and built tank installations and filling stations from Domat/Ems since 1973. Published 31 August: a demerger plan of 24 August split off Tancadi Immobilien GmbH, taking CHF 699,000 of assets and CHF 459,000 of liabilities, with Lipag's own shareholders receiving the 30,000 shares. Its purpose is running a filling station and holding property — a fifty-three-year-old firm separating real estate from operations.
The Swiss leg of Synopsys's USD 35 billion purchase of Ansys, which closed on 17 July 2025, reaching the register fourteen months later: CHF 3.73 million of assets move to ANSYS Switzerland, one member holding both sides. The Swiss survivor keeps the Ansys name, not the buyer's.
A University of Zurich spin-off developing an implantable device for fetal surgery: it closes the defect left by the surgical instruments at the end of the operation, stabilising the membrane to reduce the risk of preterm birth afterwards. The round funds the push to First-in-Human studies.
A raise of that size against CHF 20,000 of capital is a funding round reaching the register before the press. Gaia Tech upcycles agricultural and food sidestreams into cosmetic and food ingredients. The raise and the succession flag point the same way.
Opterion Health AG BL · Life Sciences & Pharma
0/100
Opterion is clinical-stage, developing OPT101, a non-glucose osmotic agent for peritoneal dialysis. Clinical-stage medtech raises in tranches and each tranche is a capital increase. This one is sized like a round, not a top-up.
Radiatech SA VD · Industrials & Manufacturing
0/100
The old purpose tied the company to vehicles; the new one covers every domain. A purpose widened from manufacture toward trade is often the first registry trace of a business preparing to change what it sells, or to be sold.
Court Watch — decisions ahead
Sep 5
PRfact AGZH
granted definitive · Kunz, Jean-Michel
Sep 10
MoRailSo AGLU
extended
Sep 11
Golf de la Gruyère SAFR
extended
Sep 13
Pearl Schweiz GmbHBL
extended
Sep 14
recove SAVD
granted definitive · Jorand Yannick
Sep 15
RMC diffusion SAVD
extended · Savoy Christophe
Estates — assets in play
Nef Consulting AG SG · Business Services
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy opened 31 August 2026. Registered capital CHF 100,000, trading at nefconsulting.ch. The register entry carries its own warning: the company's bearer shares were converted into registered shares by operation of law on 1 May 2021, and five years on the articles had still not been adapted, with the notice recording that the change must be made at the next amendment. A company that leaves a mandatory statutory correction outstanding for five years is usually not attending to much else either.
Brasseur des Grottes SA GE · Hospitality & Tourism · est. 2002
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy opened 31 August 2026, twenty-four years after incorporation on 4 September 2002. Registered capital CHF 100,000, purpose the operation of bars and café-restaurants, trading at brasseurdesgrottes.ch. A Geneva hospitality business of that age carries a lease, a licence and a fitted site, which is the part of the estate worth asking about. It is also one of the 405 bankruptcies Geneva has recorded this year against Vaud's 208 — in Geneva the estate is usually where these end.
FNA Switzerland SA VD · Wholesale & Distribution · est. 2021
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy opened 31 August 2026, five years after registration on 22 March 2021. Registered capital CHF 100,000, trading at fna.ch. The registered purpose was the purchase and sale of cocoa and other agricultural products and the connecting of African farmers with European buyers. Commodity trading on CHF 100,000 of capital leaves no buffer for a price swing or a late payment, and the counterparties are the asset — they do not survive the estate.
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Based on 6,192 SOGC/SHAB publications processed this week. M&A data sourced from Swiss commercial registry filings (9 SOGC), press-reported transactions via web intelligence (1 EXA), and startup funding from Startupticker, Tech.eu, and company disclosures (1 rounds). Company distress scoring based on proprietary multi-signal model across 113,000 Swiss companies. Valuation benchmarks supplemented from Deloitte Swiss M&A reports and Dealsuite DACH data. Moratorium counts cover open cases only — granted or extended, deadline still ahead — and exclude terminated proceedings and one register row carrying a corrupt deadline year. Canton shares are measured against the audited universe (limited or ordinary audit, active), the proxy for businesses of ten or more staff.
ValIndex reads every SOGC filing the day it publishes and scores 113,000 Swiss companies on succession, distress and ownership. The moratorium calendar behind this edition is maintained from the register, not from press coverage. Request access →