M&A ADVISORY · SME SUCCESSION · ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
168,000 Swiss owners will exit with no buyer lined up.
The buyer for your company might be your competitor, not a stranger with a checkbook. Over 168,000 Swiss SMEs are expected to change ownership by 2030, and only a fraction of those transitions go through a structured, professionally advised process. We find the buyer, run the process end to end, and get your life's work into hands that will carry it forward - confidentially, from first conversation to signed deal.
THE MARKET
Succession is accelerating. Structured processes are still rare.
Roughly 3,000-6,000 Swiss businesses change hands every year through sale, family succession, or closure, set against 208 professionally advised SME transactions in all of 2025, only a small fraction go through a structured, professionally run process. Deal activity is accelerating and buyers are increasingly professional: private equity funds were behind more than half of last year's transactions, and nearly a third of all Swiss SME deals took place in the canton of Zurich alone.
Deloitte Switzerland, M&A Activity of Swiss SMEs Report 2026 - 208 transactions in 2025 (+16% vs. 2024), private equity involved in 56% of 2025 transactions, 32% of transactions in the canton of Zurich: deloitte.com/ch
Center for Family Business, University of St. Gallen (CFB-HSG) with UBS, Unternehmensnachfolge-Kurzstudie 2026 - ~168,000 Swiss SMEs expected to undergo an ownership transfer by end-2030: unisg.ch
168,000
Swiss SMEs expected to change ownership by 2030
208
professionally advised SME M&A transactions in Switzerland in 2025, up 16% on 2024
56%
of 2025 Swiss SME transactions involved a private equity buyer
THE PROCESS
From first conversation to signed deal
We act as your sell-side advisor - sourcing buyers, running negotiations, and coordinating the specialists a clean sale requires.
01
Confidential mandate
NDA, initial valuation groundwork, and an exclusivity period agreed directly with you. Nothing goes to market until you say so. Your GEO & LinkedIn positioning work - see below - starts in this same window.
02
Buyer search
We prioritize buyers who already work in your industry - competitors and adjacent operators, often in your own region, who can run the business without a learning curve and have a concrete reason to pay a premium: more capacity, more market share, more of what they already do. Private equity and search funds are approached where they're the better fit for your size. Never a public listing. Outreach starts with an anonymized profile under NDA - your name isn't disclosed until you've agreed to move forward with a specific buyer.
03
Negotiation & diligences
Letters of intent, term sheets, and due diligence - coordinated with your trustee, lawyer, and bank, each handling the parts that require their license, not ours.
04
Closing
Share purchase agreement signed, funds transferred, your legacy secured - and a successor in place who wants the business to keep going.
0 mo
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18 mo
Most mandates close within 6-18 months. We'd rather take the time than rush the price.
Why Alldis & Partner
We're a marketing company that does M&A - not an M&A firm that dabbles in marketing.
Most Swiss SME M&A boutiques are pure deal advisors: strong on process, weak on how a company actually reads to a buyer researching it online before the first call. GEO and LinkedIn positioning were our business before we ran our first mandate - they're an in-house capability, not something we subcontract to make a slide look complete.
That's also why our fee structure looks different from a typical M&A boutique's.
In-house, not outsourced
How We Find Buyers
We look for the buyer who already knows your trade.
MA typical broker builds a wide, generic buyer list and pitches your company to whoever roughly fits on paper - financial investors, holding companies, private equity funds. We start narrower: for a gardening business, we start with other gardening companies in the region who might want to grow by absorbing yours, not with "who has capital to deploy."
Same-industry buyers already have the operational know-how to run the business, the back-office capacity to absorb it, and a real reason to pay a premium; not portfolio diversification, but removing a competitor and gaining density in their own market. Private equity and search funds remain part of the search where they fit; for the size of company we typically work with, a same-industry buyer is often the stronger and faster route.
This does mean competitors in your own industry may be part of the buyer outreach. We always start with an anonymized blind profile: industry, region, revenue band, no company name, under NDA, and we tell you this upfront before any name goes out. If you'd rather we keep direct competitors out of the search entirely, say so in the mandate and we will.
Anonymized outreach, always
FEES
No cash retainer. You book GEO instead.
We don't charge a monthly advisory fee to run your process. Every sell-side mandate requires booking our GEO & LinkedIn positioning service directly - that's what funds the process instead of a retainer, and it's work your company needs either way, since buyers research a company online long before they ever speak to us. Because we're not taking a retainer, our success fee at closing sits at the standard Swiss market rate, not below it.
Instead of a retainer
600 CHF
per month - booked directly at alldis.marketing/en/geo, not included for free
Monthly GEO optimization sprints and LinkedIn positioning, so buyers find a company that looks as strong online as it performs on paper. This replaces a cash retainer - it isn't an add-on charged on top of one.
Success fee
8-10% → 2-3%
sliding scale by transaction value, standard Swiss market rate
A tiered percentage of transaction value, due only at closing, set out in full in the mandate letter before we start - no surprises at the closing table.
SUCCESS FEE SCHEDULE
Transaction value
Up to CHF 2M
CHF 2-5M
CHF 5-10M
CHF 10-20M
Above CHF 20M
Rate
8-10%
6-8%
4-6%
3-4%
2-3%
CHF 1.2M deal
≈ CHF 108,000
~9% effective
CHF 8M deal
≈ CHF 540,000
~6.75% effective
CHF 3M deal
≈ CHF 250,000
~8.3% effective
CHF 12M deal
≈ CHF 710,000
~5.9% effective
WHO THIS IS FOR
A short list of what makes a mandate a good fit
→ You're thinking about an exit within the next one to three years, not tomorrow.
→ No internal successor: or one who can't finance a buyout alone.
→ You're open to a same-industry buyer being part of the search, alongside private equity or search funds.
→ Roughly CHF 300,000–2,000,000 in annual EBITDA: typically CHF 1.2M-12M in deal value.
→ You want a confidential, professionally run process, not a for-sale sign.
→ You're willing to book GEO & LinkedIn positioning alongside the mandate - it's how we work, not an optional upsell.
FOR BUYERS
Looking to grow by acquiring, not to sell?
We work the buy side too - mainly for same-industry acquirers.
Most of our buy-side conversations are with owners and operators who want to grow by absorbing a same-industry competitor or an adjacent business in their region, the same logic that drives how we source buyers for our sell-side mandates. We occasionally work with search funds and private equity building a platform in a specific Swiss trade or sector.
We don't maintain a large buyer database the way some established boutiques do. What we do instead is get to know a smaller number of relevant sellers and operators in a given trade closely. If you tell us your target profile: industry, region, size, we'll tell you honestly whether we already have, or can reasonably build, relevant seller relationships before you commit to anything.
→ Same-industry and adjacent operators looking to expand by acquisition
→ Search funds and private equity building a platform in a specific Swiss sector
→ Target segment: roughly CHF 300K-2M EBITDA, CHF 1.2M–12M deal value
→ No fee to register interest, we're only paid by the seller at closing
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Questions we hear most about selling
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No. M&A brokerage in Switzerland - introducing buyers and sellers and negotiating a transaction - doesn't require a FINMA license, as long as we're not managing assets or dealing in securities on your behalf. We work alongside your trustee and lawyer, who handle the parts of the process that do require their own licenses.
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We don't take a cash retainer at all. Instead, every sell-side mandate requires booking our GEO & LinkedIn positioning service directly, at CHF 600/month. It funds the process the way a retainer would elsewhere, and it does real work: buyers - especially PE firms and strategics - research a company online long before the first call, and a weak or outdated presence reads as risk. This isn't a free bonus and it isn't optional; it's how the mandate is structured.
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Possibly, if we believe a same-industry buyer is your strongest option - see "How We Find Buyers" above. We always lead with an anonymized blind profile under NDA before your company is named, and we tell you upfront that competitors may be part of the outreach. If you'd rather we exclude direct competitors, tell us in the mandate and we will.
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+
Most mandates run 6 to 18 months from signed engagement letter to closing. Straightforward businesses with clean financials move faster; anything involving family dynamics, an unclear successor, or complex ownership structures tends to run longer.
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Most often a same-industry or adjacent operator looking to expand. Alongside that, private equity firms building platforms in your sector and search funds - individual entrepreneurs raising capital to run a single business as CEO - where they're a better fit for your size.
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Yes. We never run a public listing. Buyers are approached individually under NDA, starting with a blind profile before your company's name is disclosed. Your staff, suppliers, and competitors don't need to know until you decide they should.
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Generally CHF 300,000-2,000,000 in annual EBITDA, which typically puts deal value in the CHF 1.2M–12M range. Outside that range we'll tell you honestly if a larger investment bank, or a smaller, informal sale process, is the better fit.
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M&A brokerage is a newer part of what we do, built on top of an existing marketing agency working with Swiss SMEs. We're upfront about that rather than overstating a track record - what we bring instead is the marketing and positioning capability most pure M&A boutiques don't have in-house, and we'll always be direct about where a larger, longer-established advisor might be the better fit for a specific deal.
READY TO START?
Ready to talk, off the record?
Book a confidential conversation - whether you're thinking about a sale or looking to grow by acquiring. No obligation, no listing, no one else needs to know yet.