A statutory auditor (organe de révision) is the entity or individual responsible for auditing a Swiss company's annual accounts under CO requirements. Depending on company size and nature, this may be a licensed audit expert (ordinary audit for large companies) or a registered auditor (restricted review for smaller entities). Small companies may waive the audit if all shareholders consent. In M&A, the statutory audit level directly signals the reliability of financial statements provided in due diligence — a higher audit standard reduces perceived financial information risk.

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Example: due diligence on a Basel SA subject to ordinary statutory audit reveals 3 years of clean audit reports from a licensed expert-réviseur agréé — no qualifications or material weaknesses. This clean history reduces accounting risk perception, supports a lower SCRP in the WACC and allows a more focused due diligence scope, saving the buyer CHF 30,000–50,000 in advisory costs.

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Hectelion assesses statutory audit quality as a financial information reliability indicator in every Swiss acquisition due diligence.