Thermo Fischer Scientific on track for $2bn Dionex acqusition
The $2.1bn (€1.6bn) deal, which is on track to complete this quarter following the expiry of the US antitrust waiting period, will add California, US-based Dionex’ ion exchange and liquid chromatography lines to TFS’ existing separation technology offering.
TFS explained that integration of the’ technologies will improve the performance and productivity of its mass spectrometry and laboratory information management systems (LIMS), which are used extensively by the pharmaceutical industry for analysis.
Asian expansion
From a global perspective, TFS believes it will also benefit from Dionex’ customer base in applied markets “where growth is driven by new regulatory requirements and increased testing in developing countries.”
Dionex, which claims to have 350,000 customers worldwide, currently generates around 35 per cent of its revenues in Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets.
This presence and large customer base in keeping with TFS’ efforts to build in the region as a whole, and China in particular, where it anticipates a rapid increase in demand in accordance with industrialisation.
TFS’ China expansion plans were set last year by Chuck Kummeth, president of the laboratory consumables business, who spoke to in-PharmaTechnologist.com shortly after the firm completed the expansion of a manufacturing facility in Shanghai.
Kummeth said that TFS’ was keen to have assets in regions where innovation will occurs which, evidently from the Dionex deal, is also an aspiration for the firm’s chromatography business.
But, while the acquisition is likely to further TFS’ efforts to expand in China, Dionex’ assets in India also fit with Kummeth’s assertion that: “increasing its presence in India would help Thermo better understand local needs and adapt its offering accordingly.”
