Thermo-Life Receives Chinese and US Approval with Conditions
The FTC estimated that, combined, Thermo and Life would have had over 50% and 90% shares of the individual siRNA reagent and siRNA reagent library markets, respectively. It also estimated the combined company would have had a 50% share of the cell culture media market and a 60% share of the market for cell culture sera. On its quarterly conference call, Thermo increased its forecast for earnings accretion related to the acquisition in the first full year from adjusted EPS of $0.90–$1.00 to $1.25–$1.30. Thermo will create a fourth operating segment, Life Sciences Solutions, which will include most of the Life and Thermo biosciences businesses. Thermo estimated Life’s 2014 revenue will grow 2%–3% on a pro forma basis.
Beijing, China 1/15/14; Beijing, China 1/20/14; Washington, DC 1/31/14— Thermo Fisher Scientific’s proposed acquisition of Life Technologies (see IBO 4/15/13) has received clearance in the US and China. Stating that the merger would have restricted competition in the cell culture products, sequence-specific primer (SSP) kits, protein standards for SDS-PAGE and siRNA reagent markets, China’s Ministry of Commerce held negotiations with Thermo and granted conditional approval. Earlier this month, Thermo announced the sale of three businesses, including the cell culture and siRNA reagent businesses, to satisfy the EU’s conditions for approval of the acquisition (see IBO 1/15/14). In addition to the sale of those businesses, an unofficial translation of a separate, more detailed announcement stated that the Chinese Ministry would require Thermo to sell its 51% holding in Lanzhou China Sea Biological Engineering, reduce the catalog prices in China for its SDS-PAGE protein standards, and reduce the prices it charges as a third-party OEM supplier for SSP kits and SDS-PAGE protein standards. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has granted conditional approval for the acquisition, requiring that Thermo divest the three product lines that it has already agreed to sell to GE. There is a 30-day public comment period.
