Unternavigation

Figures on SMEs: Types of succession

The vast majority of business successions are made within a family. It is still often difficult to find a purchaser.

Succession still often poses a problem in small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland: approximately one SME in three disappears because it does not find a purchaser, according to the study "KMU Nachfolge - Quo Vadis?" by the KMU Next foundation. However, it constitutes an interesting alternative to the creation of a structure from zero: the survival rate after five years is 95% for transferred companies versus only 50% for new enterprises.

Almost 45% of enterprises are transferred within the same family (family buy-out), 25% to someone outside the company (management buy-in) and 30% to employees who are not family members (management buy-out), according to the "Company Succession in Practice" report published in June 2016 by Credit Suisse.

Successions planned and completed — Source: Credit Suisse, Success Factors for Swiss SMEs, June 2013, Company Succession in Practice 2016 (next publication: no information available)

Succession according to business size

Of the 603,602 companies listed in the commercial register, 91,360 were looking for a successor in 2021, according to a study by the data collection company Dun & Bradstreet (Study in German). Succession issues affect about 15% of Swiss companies of between 1 and 49 employees. By contrast, the same concern only affects 7.8% of companies of 50 to 249 employees.

It is not always easy to find a buyer. In particular, students from a family that owns a company are only slightly interested in a takeover. Nevertheless, their interest increases a few years after the end of their studies, based on a study by the University of Saint-Gall.

Choice of career by graduates from a family that owns a company
	At end of studies	Five years later
Heirs of the family business	3.5%	4.9%
Employees in another company or in public service	68.3%	35.5%
Founders of a new company	7.2%	34.7%
Others	20.9%	24.8%