Sartorius, an international laboratory and pharmaceutical equipment provider, is selling its Industrial Technologies Division (Intec) to the Japanese Minebea Co., Ltd. (Minebea) and their partner, the Development Bank of Japan Inc. The sales price will be determined as a multiple of the Intec division’s 2014 operating profit and be fixed in early 2015. The contractual parties agreed on a 7.5 multiple on the division’s 2014 operating EBITDA. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearance by the antitrust authorities, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.
“By selling our Intec Division to Minebea, we are realizing an important cornerstone of our long-term strategy and focus on our two core activities in Bioprocess and Laboratory. Over the past years we have successfully positioned our Intec business as a specialist for industrial weighing and control technologies and have reached healthy profitability levels. Under Minebea`s roof, this business will now gain the critical mass needed to further extend its footprint internationally, an important prerequisite for further growth. I am convinced that Minebea is the perfect new owner for this business because of the complementarity of the product portfolios and the geographical footprint, and also because of their commitment to long-term strategies and premium products,” commented Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sartorius.
The smallest division in the Sartorius Group, Intec recorded sales revenue of 102 million euros for fiscal 2013; its underlying EBITDA margin attained 10.1% at year-end in the prior reporting period. The division employs around 700 people worldwide, 350 of whom work at its German sites in Hamburg, Aachen and Bovenden. The Intec business will complement the Measurement Components business unit at Minebea, which will take on all Intec Division staff.
