Thermo Fisher Scientific wishes to takeover Qiagen for €10.4 billion

According to Thermo Fisher Scientific, it wishes to purchase Qiagen for €10.4 billion. Qiagen is a prominent name in healthcare known for manufacturing diagnostic kits for multiple diseases including tuberculosis and cancer. The German genetic testing company responded with a statement that its supervisory boards and management has decided in favor of recommending the company’s shareholders to agree to the offer.

Currently, Qiagen is committed to providing its newly developed Coronavirus diagnostic kits to hospitals in mainland China.  

Thermo Fisher’s Bid Values Qiagen’s Shares At €39

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s bid values Qiagen’s shares at €39 that marks a 23% premium on its closing price in the stock market on Monday. Following Thermo’s announcement, Qiagen was seen trading 20.7% higher on Monday. According to Qiagen, the offered bid also accounts for a net debt of €1.26 billion.

In an estimate, Thermo Fisher highlighted that closure of the aforementioned deal will result in $200 million in synergies in the next three years. The U.S based company specializes in providing software, scientific instruments, and related services for R&D primarily in the healthcare sector.

At the time of writing, Thermo is exchanging hands at around $305 per share in the stock market that translates to around 7% decline in 2020 so far. Its performance in 2019, on the other hand, remained largely upbeat with an annual surge of a little under 50%. Thermo Fisher opened at $221 per share in January 2019 while closed the year significantly higher at $326 in December. According to Refinitiv, the Massachusetts-based company is currently valued at $121 billion.

Thierry Bernard also appreciated the bid in his capacity as the CEO of Qiagen and expressed confidence that the deal will open the door to a whole new era for the German company and significantly expand its impact.

Qiagen Topped Analysts’ Estimates For Profits And Sales In The Recent Quarter

Qiagen first declared that it is evaluating options in November. Following interest indications from potential suitors, the company was also open for sale. Towards the end of the year, however, it had announced that it currently sees keeping its status of a standalone company as its best bet.

The rough road started for Qiagen last October as its long-serving chief executive officer, Peer Schatz, announced his resignation. Following his departure, the company adopted a new strategy that included a collaboration with Illumina and removal of its focus from developing the next generation machines for genome sequencing.

Qiagen said that it topped analysts’ estimates for quarterly profits and sales earlier this month and attributed the success to its decision of quitting the genome sequencing machines.