Sartorius closes acquisition of BIA Separations

Combination of businesses creates a premium portfolio for advanced therapies
Course set for successful integration

The life science company Sartorius successfully closed the acquisition of the Slovenian purification specialist BIA Separations. The transaction was completed on November 2, 2020, after receiving the required approvals.

“BIA´s portfolio is highly complementary to Sartorius. We are thus creating an excellent offering for the manufacturing of gene therapies and other advanced therapies, and are pleased to welcome 120 new employees,” said Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO of Sartorius.

The total purchase price of the transaction is 360 million euros of which 240 million euros were paid in cash and 120 million euros in Sartorius Stedim Biotech shares. Both parties have further agreed on three tranches of earn-out payments based on performance over the next five financial years. Sartorius has been preparing to integrate BIA Separations into the Sartorius Stedim Biotech subgroup so this can now be initiated despite the special conditions prevailing during the pandemic.

BIA Separations develops and manufactures market-leading products for purification and analysis of large biomolecules, such as viruses, plasmids and mRNA, which are used in cell and gene therapies and other advanced therapies. BIA’s technology for manufacturing-scale purification is already used in production of the first commercialized advanced therapeutics, and the company also has a strong presence with such novel drug candidates in the clinical pipeline. Expecting continued very strong double-digit sales growth over the next few years, BIA is forecasted to earn sales revenue of approx. 25 million euros in 2020 at profit margins that will be accretive to both the underlying EBITDA margins of Sartorius’ Bioprocess Solutions segment and of the overall Sartorius Group. The transaction is not expected to have any material impact on Sartorius’ 2020 results.

_{This press release contains forward-looking statements about the future development of the Sartorius Group. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Sartorius assumes no liability for updating such statements in light of new information or future events. This is a translation of the original German-language press release. Sartorius shall not assume any liability for the correctness of this translation. The original German press release is the legally binding version.}