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A group agreement (convention de groupe or Konzernvertrag) is an intragroup agreement organising the financial, operational and governance relationships between entities within a Swiss group: cash pooling, transfer pricing, cross-guarantees, intragroup service agreements. These arrangements must respect the arm's length principle to be fiscally and legally valid in Switzerland. In financial due diligence, group agreement analysis identifies intragroup financial flows, inter-entity dependencies and potential tax reassessment risks. When a subsidiary is being acquired separately from its group, the group agreements define the services and support that must be replaced or renegotiated post-acquisition.

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Example: due diligence on a Swiss subsidiary being acquired separately from its parent reveals a group agreement providing CHF 1.8 million of annual intragroup services (IT, HR, finance, management). These services must be replaced or internalised post-acquisition — an additional cost not reflected in the standalone EBITDA, requiring restatement and integration into the post-acquisition business plan and valuation.

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Hectelion analyses group agreements and intragroup flows as an essential step in every due diligence involving subsidiaries of Swiss or international groups.