Market Pulse · Monthly · September 2026

Swisscom's software arm keeps buying

This is the first monthly Market Pulse. Once a month I go through what the commercial register and the business press recorded, keep what would change a decision for someone who owns or buys a Swiss company, and leave out the rest.

September's lesson: the buyers worth knowing are the ones with a record, and the register's own merger count is mostly noise. — Alain Walder

Alain Walder · Published 24 October 2026 · 2026-09-01 – 2026-09-30 · Corrected 2 November 2026

In this letter

  1. 1Swisscom's Axept and Affidea keep buying, in an order that shows which owners they need next.
  2. 2Three owners sold in September. Two of the buyers took the business and moved production out.
  3. 3Most of what the register calls a merger is a group tidying itself, and the real deals hide among them.
  4. 4Geneva's bankruptcies more than doubled, and the canton next door handles failure very differently.
September 2026 in numbers ↓Every transaction recorded in September 2026 ↓What to watch in October ↓

September 2026 in numbers

Counts of notices published in the SOGC between 1 and 30 September, all legal forms, all cantons, unless stated. Year-earlier figures are the same count for September 2025.

Companies dissolved by bankruptcy
Each company counted once, all legal forms; openings annulled on appeal excluded. 1,476 notices.
1,444+9% vs Sept 2025
1,323
Bankruptcy dissolutions, January–September
5,143 in the same months of 2024. Each company counted once.
10,303+41% vs Sept 2025
7,315
Bankruptcies closed for lack of assets
Proceedings suspended because the estate could not cover its costs. Lags the openings by weeks to months.
1,301+49% vs Sept 2025
872
New entries in the commercial register
All legal forms, including sole proprietorships and branches.
4,453+6% vs Sept 2025
4,212
Companies struck from the register
2,539-5% vs Sept 2025
2,664
Notices changing a board or management
10,5080% vs Sept 2025
10,513
Notices changing share capital
526+16% vs Sept 2025
454
Merger notices
Most are absorptions inside one group; see chapter 3.
132+7% vs Sept 2025
123
Family handovers on company boards
A board seat passing to a relative with the same surname, AGs and GmbHs.
246+8% vs Sept 2025
228
Transactions recorded by ValIndex
15 announced in the press, 2 visible only in the register and reported nowhere else.
17—

1. The buyers with a record

On 9 September Axept Business Software bought Aandarta of Wallisellen, which installs AbaImmo, the property-management module of the Swiss ERP Abacus, for more than 250 clients. It is the third Abacus business Axept has taken in eighteen months. MTF Solutions handed over its Abacus team in April 2025, and in April 2026 Abacus Research itself sold Axept its Western Swiss sales partner. Swisscom bought Axept in June 2023, when it had about 180 staff; it now has more than 250.

Two weeks later Affidea, owned by the Belgian investment company GBL, bought ZIO, six oncology centres between Glarus and Zurich with about 100 staff. It was Affidea's fifth Swiss purchase since February 2025, after a pathology laboratory group, the Uroviva urology network, the LabPoint laboratories and Berner Urologen. Laboratories make the diagnosis, urologists treat the prostate, oncologists run the chemotherapy. Each purchase sends patients to the next.

If you own an Abacus partner firm or a specialist practice around Zurich, you now have a buyer with a record and a reason to call you. Any other offer will be measured against theirs. Neither group has disclosed a price, for these deals or the earlier ones.

From the weekly issues
W37W39

2. The business moves, the building stays behind

Patiswiss of Gunzgen takes over the nut business of Hans Nobs & Cie from 1 January 2027: the brand, the customers, the recipes and the machines. The Münchenbuchsee property is not part of the sale, and production moves to Gunzgen. Granovit is taking over the feed maker utro Fikovit, whose sole owner since 1995, Josef Fischer, joins Granovit's board. Production moves to Kaiseraugst, and the Emmenbrücke mill site is being built over with housing.

For a seller, that split is worth planning early. The buyer pays for what earns money: brand, customers, recipes, machines. The property becomes a separate decision, to rent out, sell on its own terms or develop, and Nobs kept its building out of the deal.

The third seller chose the buyer she knew. Daniela Wenk, Snowlife's main shareholder, sold the Malans glove specialist, which has made winter gloves since 1973, to Lenz of Vorarlberg, whose heated textiles Snowlife had distributed for fifteen years. The best partner, she said, mattered more than the fastest or the richest offer. Suppliers and long-time distributors are the buyers a sale process most often forgets to call first.

From the weekly issues
W37W39

3. What the register calls a merger

The commercial register publishes more than a hundred merger notices a month, 132 in September. They look like a measure of M&A. They are not. We read all 927 filings recorded as mergers or asset transfers between June and mid-September. In 72% of them the notice says one owner already held both companies: a parent absorbing a subsidiary, or two sister companies combined. In only 16, 1.7%, did the buyer pay the absorbed company's owners in new shares, the one wording that proves two different owners were involved.

The reason is that a Swiss AG is sold by selling its shares, and the register does not publish who owns an AG. What it publishes comes later: directors leaving and arriving and, sometimes a year on, the absorption. KNAPP took over ARIKI Solutions in August 2025, when the register showed ARIKI's owners leaving, and absorbed it in September 2026.

So the real deals hide among the housekeeping, and some are never reported anywhere else. Ila Group AG was registered in Bern on 7 July to acquire companies. In a notice published on 3 September it took all the shares of Cardio Bern, a cardiology practice, and paid with 1,000 of its own new shares. No cash, no price, no press release. The month's only other deal visible solely in the register, Dommen Nadig Personal's takeover of the Lucerne staffing firm Chrampfcheibe, was also paid in new shares. Neither was reported anywhere else.

From the weekly issues
W36W38W39

4. Vaud restructures, Geneva liquidates

Swiss bankruptcies are still running at about twice their 2024 level, the result of the 2025 reform that sends unpaid taxes and social contributions to the bankruptcy court. That is no longer news. Geneva is. 302 Geneva companies were declared bankrupt in September, against 142 a year earlier: the canton's highest month in our register archive, which goes back to 2016. The court's notices were spread across the month, not one batch. Zurich, with far more companies, recorded 166, fewer than a year ago.

Next door, Vaud handles failure differently. From January to September, 14 Vaud companies were granted a composition moratorium, against 6 in Geneva, which had about a quarter more bankruptcies. In Vaud a struggling company tends to get a commissioner, a deadline and its creditors at the table. In Geneva it tends to be wound up. For anyone buying distressed businesses, that is the difference between a company you can talk to and an estate you can only bid on.

One September estate is worth a call. Libattion of Opfikon, which builds industrial storage from used electric-vehicle batteries and raised EUR 14 million in 2024, was declared bankrupt on 16 September. Its designs and battery software are what a buyer would want.

From the weekly issues
W36W39

Also in September

EQT has now sold all of Open Systems, which it bought in 2017: Ontinue goes to Quorum Cyber of Edinburgh, two years after the network business went to Swiss Post.

TX Group raised its stake in SMG Swiss Marketplace Group to 34.9% when Mobiliar sold 7.5% in an overnight placement, announced on 15 September.

mageba, the Bülach bridge-bearings maker, turned a CHF 2.0 million claim into shares, months after DBAG agreed to sell its stake at half its original cost.

From the weekly issues
W37W38

Every transaction recorded in September 2026

Dated to the announcement or, for register-only deals, to the SOGC publication. Group reorganisations and demergers are excluded.

DateTargetBuyer
09-02
Snowlife AG
Family owner sells the Malans glove specialist to its supplier of fifteen years.
Lenz Ges.m.b.H.Press
09-02
atNorth
Zug-based sponsor invests in the Nordic data-centre operator.
Partners GroupPress
09-03
Cardio Bern AG
Seven-week-old holding pays for a cardiology practice with 1,000 of its own shares. No press coverage.
Ila Group AGRegister only
09-04
Neur.on
Paris group buys the Fribourg start-up.
Legal 230Press
09-09
Aandarta AG
Third Abacus deal in eighteen months; more than 250 property clients.
Axept Business Software AG (Swisscom)Press
09-14
SMG Swiss Marketplace Group (3.4m shares)
Stake rises from 31.4% to 34.9% in Mobiliar's 7.5% placement.
TX Group AGPress
09-15
Alliants Limited
Hotel access joins digital guest services.
dormakaba Holding AGPress
09-15
Sibium Analytics
Digital-farming group continues its acquisition run.
xFarm TechnologiesPress
09-16
Ontinue
EQT completes its exit from Open Systems, bought in 2017.
Quorum Cyber (Eterna Growth Partners)Press
09-16
Planlabs
Stockholm company buys a two-year-old Zurich AI team.
EndraPress
09-17
Health & Medical Service AG
European Commission clears joint control of the railway's former occupational-health service.
Helsana Beteiligungen AG and SBBPress
09-18
Chrampfcheibe AG
Lucerne staffing merger with new shares issued to the absorbed firm's owners. No press coverage.
Dommen Nadig Personal AGRegister only
09-21
Giraldo Hermanos International SAS (GHI)
Swissport enters Colombia.
Swissport InternationalPress
09-22
Hans Nobs & Cie AG (nut business)
Brand, customers, recipes and machines from 1 January 2027; the real estate stays.
Patiswiss AGPress
09-22
utro Fikovit AG
Feed maker sold; the Emmenbrücke mill closes and the seller joins Granovit's board.
Granovit AGPress
09-24
ZIO Zentrum für Integrative Onkologie AG
Affidea's fifth Swiss healthcare purchase since February 2025.
AffideaPress
09-25
Connected Intelligence (Motion Applied Ltd)
Rail-communications offering expanded.
HUBER+SUHNER AGPress

What to watch in October

  • DeinDeal is in a provisional moratorium to 7 December, and Tupperware Products of Root in a definitive one to 30 November. Both deadlines fall before year-end.
  • Sintetica, the Mendrisio anaesthetics maker Ardian has owned since 2019: laRegione reports Dr. Reddy's as the latest candidate buyer.
  • Year-end holdings. Owners put companies under a holding about twice as often in December as the register's volume would predict, and 2026 is already a record year. Expect succession moves before 31 December.

Questions this report answers

How many Swiss companies went bankrupt in September 2026?

1,444 companies were dissolved by bankruptcy in Switzerland in September 2026, according to ValIndex's count of commercial-register notices in the SOGC, against 1,323 in September 2025 and 738 in September 2024. Each company is counted once.

Why are Swiss bankruptcies rising in 2026?

Since 1 January 2025, unpaid taxes and social-security contributions owed by companies registered in the commercial register are enforced through bankruptcy rather than seizure. Since June 2025 monthly bankruptcies have run between about 860 and 1,450, against 500 to 750 a month in 2024, and they reached 10,303 from January to September 2026 (+41% on 2025).

Which Swiss canton had the most bankruptcies in September 2026?

Geneva, with 302 of the national 1,444, up from 142 in September 2025. Zurich recorded 166 and Vaud 164.

What were the main Swiss acquisitions in September 2026?

Affidea bought the ZIO oncology centres, its fifth Swiss healthcare purchase since February 2025; Swisscom's Axept bought Aandarta, its third Abacus deal in eighteen months; Quorum Cyber agreed to buy Ontinue from EQT; Patiswiss agreed to take over the Nobs nut business from January 2027; TX Group raised its SMG stake to 34.9%.

Are Swiss commercial-register mergers a good measure of M&A?

No. Of 927 register filings classified as mergers or asset transfers between 1 June and 13 September 2026, 72% stated that one owner already held both companies, and only 1.7% issued new shares to the owners of the absorbed company. Swiss share sales are not published in the register, so most acquisitions appear only later, as board changes and eventual absorptions.

How this report was built

This report combines the five weekly Market Pulse issues covering September 2026 (W36 to W40) with a full count of the month's commercial-register notices published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC/SHAB). National counts cover every notice of the stated type published between 1 and 30 September, all legal forms and cantons, by registering canton; year-earlier figures apply the same count to September 2025. Family handovers are board changes in AGs and GmbHs where a departing member is replaced by a person with the same surname, as defined in our family-handover study. Transactions are dated to their announcement or, when they appear only in the register, to the SOGC publication. Since the 18 September issue our register deal count excludes filings stating that one owner held both companies, and demergers; on 9 October we found and fixed an older tagger that had been letting group absorptions back into that count. Some figures in the weekly issues used narrower populations (for example audited companies only) and are not directly comparable with the national counts here. Items announced on 1 and 2 October, such as Schweizer Treuhand Holding's majority in SMART Treuhand, belong to the October report. Bankruptcies count each company once and leave out openings annulled on appeal: Geneva's court now often publishes a second bankruptcy judgment for the same company, so a count of notices overstates the rise.

Corrections

  • 25 October 2026: Bankruptcies are now counted once per company. Geneva's court increasingly publishes two judgments for the same company, which had inflated the count of notices: September is 1,444 (not 1,476), +9% on a year earlier (not +11%); Geneva 302 (not 327); January to September 10,303 (+41%, not 10,921 and +43%). Bankruptcies closed for lack of assets are also counted once per company: 1,301 (not 1,332 notices).
  • 25 October 2026: Three register filings were removed from the transactions (STAIGER/Badertscher, Auto AG Bus/Bahnhoftaxi Wohlen, mofakult/Siggnature): each states that one owner already held both companies, which our own method excludes. September has 17 transactions, not 20.
  • 25 October 2026: Removed Stadler Signalling's CHF 39.75 million debt conversion: the register withdrew that entry on 1 October as made in error. Removed Electro Sécurité from the estates: its bankruptcy was suspended on appeal on 1 October.
  • 25 October 2026: Family handovers recounted over the full month: 222, not 224. utro Fikovit: no source says the property stays with the family; the text now says what the sources do. Snowlife has made gloves since 1973; it was registered in 1979. Vaud's moratorium figure replaced with one we can reproduce. The lowest month since June 2025 had about 860 bankruptcies, not 870.
  • 2 November 2026: Family handovers recounted from the register notices with the current version of our detector, which now also reads the French-language forms used in Vaud, Geneva, Fribourg and Neuchâtel more completely; each company once per month: 246, not 222 (September 2025: 228, not 219). The statistics page uses the same method for every month.
How to cite this report

ValIndex Market Pulse, September 2026: “Swisscom's software arm keeps buying” (2026-10-24). https://valindex.ch/en/pulse/monthly/2026-09/

2026-09-01 – 2026-09-30 · SOGC/SHAB · free to quote with attribution

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