Q4 2024: How did the Swiss valuation parameters and the European M&A volume develop?

Valuation Market Essentials Switzerland – what key highlights did we observe in Q4 2024?

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In brief

• Compared to Q3 2024, median EBITDA trading multiples declined for all the sectors.
• Compared to the previous quarter, in Q4 2024, the spot rates of 10-year government bonds for the United States and the Euro Zone experienced an uptick to 4.6% (up from 3.8%) and 2.5% (up from 2.2%), respectively, while rates in Switzerland experienced a downtick, reaching 0.3% (down from 0.4%).
• In Q4 2024, the European M&A landscape experienced a downturn, with the total number of transactions declining by 10% to 148, down from 164 in the preceding quarter. The average deal volume decreased by 49% compared to Q3 2024.
• No new company was listed on the Swiss SIX stock exchange; however, there was one delisting on the exchange in the Media, Technology and Telecommunications (MT&T) sector.
• During the observed period, the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio increased for all categories of the banking and insurance sector, including global and private banks, retail and cantonal banks as well as insurance companies.
• Concurrently, the Price-to-Tangible Book (P/TB) ratio exhibited an upward trend for global and private banks, while remaining unchanged for retail and cantonal banks as well as for insurance companies, when compared to the preceding quarter.

To identify major movements in valuations or to conclude that the values did not significantly change, we deem monitoring the developments of the most recent market data to be crucial to understand their impact on the key parameters used in corporate valuations. In our quarterly publication “Valuation Market Essentials Switzerland” we present the key highlights of the most recent market developments. The publication covers market multiples and cost of capital components per sector for the companies of the Swiss All Share Index (except general financial and real estate companies) as well as relevant macro-economic data used in business valuations.