Antevo

Antevo / Succession and sale

Succession and selling a company.

Around 80% of Swiss business owners founded their company and have little experience of a handover. These pages answer the questions that come up on the way, each with its figures, its primary sources and one place in Antevo to act on it.

Written by Antevo · 16 October 2026

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01 / The questions

Seven questions, answered.

Figures from the UBS Succession Study 2026 and from our own analysis of the Swiss trademark register, each with its source on the page.

1.Do business owners plan their succession early enough?Many do not. In UBS’s 2026 study, 21% of owners aged 65 to 90 could not name a handover date, and a handover takes years.2.Is my company ready for an external buyer?Ready means separable and documented: non-operating assets dealt with, processes and agreements written down, and the brand held by the company.3.Who owns your brand when you sell your company?Whoever the register names. 37% of Swiss trademark applications from July to September 2026 named a holder with no company legal form.4.An emergency plan for business ownersThree questions: who decides for you, how the company stays able to act, and how succession and inheritance are arranged.5.After the sale: what changes for your wealth?One company stake becomes liquid wealth. The questions become concentration, and how large a fall you could live with.6.Buying a company? Check the brand before you sign.Check who holds the marks, which goods and services they cover, and which dates are running.7.For asset managers: succession clientsThe liquidity event comes years after the planning starts. The relationship is built in between.

Antevo analysis of national trademark applications in the Swiss register (Swissreg, IPI) with a filing date from 1 July to 30 September 2026, the latest full quarter our copy of the register holds almost completely; as of 16 October 2026. A holder name counts as carrying a legal form when it contains a recognised company or organisation form (AG, GmbH, SA, Sàrl, Sagl, Ltd, cooperative, foundation, association and others). The rule fails safe: a company whose form it does not recognise counts as having none, so the share may run slightly high. Address and representative as recorded by the IPI; the 429 applications without a recorded address are not in the Swiss-address figures. Counts only: no holder is named.

Sources

Where this comes from.

The study behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal, tax, estate or investment advice, and your lawyer, notary or tax specialist confirms anything a decision rests on.

1.UBS: Why succession outside the family is becoming more important (UBS Succession Study 2026), 25 August 2026www.ubs.com2.Swissreg: the Swiss trademark register (IPI), source of the Antevo analysiswww.swissreg.ch

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