GE To Sell BioPharma Business to Danaher for $21.4 Billion
GE has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its BioPharma business to Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology company, headquartered in Washington D.C., for a total consideration of $21.4 billion, including $21 billion in cash as well as Danaher’s assumption of certain pension liabilities.
GE expects to use the proceeds from the transaction to reduce leverage and strengthen its balance sheet. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
The BioPharma business being divested is part of GE Life Sciences and is a provider of instruments, consumables, and software that support the research, discovery, process development and manufacturing workflows of biopharmaceuticals. The business is comprised of process chromatography hardware and consumables, cell-culture media, single-use technologies, development instrumentation and consumables, and service. In 2018, the BioPharma business generated revenues of approximately $3 billion and is expected to generate annual revenue of approximately $3.2 billion in 2019, with approximately 75% of these revenues considered recurring.
The BioPharma business will be established as a stand-alone operating company within Danaher’s $6.5-billion life-sciences segment, joining the company’s Pall, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, SCIEX, Leica Microsystems, Molecular Devices, Phenomenex and IDT businesses. Danaher finished last year (2018) with net earnings of $2.7 billion, on revenues that increased 8.5% to $19.9 billion. Danaher has more than 20 operating companies with approximately 71,000 employees.
Pharmaceutical Diagnostics, currently part of GE Life Sciences, will remain within the GE Healthcare portfolio. This business supplies contrast media and molecular imaging consumables for radiology customers around the world and is highly complementary to GE Healthcare’s medical imaging business. GE’s pharmaceutical imaging agents are used in approximately 90 million patient procedures each year.
The transaction is not subject to a financing condition or a shareholder vote.
