Center Valley and Radnor, PA 11/21/17; Brussels, Belgium, 11/20/17—Avantor, a provider of ultra-high-purity materials, has completed its acquisition of VWR, which supplies product, supply chain and services solutions to lab and production customers (see IBO 5/15/17). The final purchase price totaled $6.5 billion. Avantor CEO Michael Stubblefield will lead the combined company. “The completion of this acquisition marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for our combined organization,” he said. “The new Avantor is a leading global provider of discovery-to-delivery solutions that offer more value to customers along with an additional layer of supply chain security.” VWR delisted from the NASDAQ stock change effective November 21. The EU announced the clearance of the transaction the day before the deal closed. The European Commission stated that “alternative manufacturers and distributors remaining on the market will be not be affected by the merger.” (For VWR’s latest quarterly financial results, see Bottom Line.)

According to a September article in the Financial Times, the purchase was delayed as investors requested a better return for the bond offering and loans, which together totaled $7.5 billion. Goldman Sachs increased the yields of the unsecured bond from 7.5% to 9%, as well as making other changes affecting the loans and the terms. Observers had criticized the buyout as overleveraged. The newspaper quotes a source as citing a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 10 to 1 post closing. In September, Moody’s downgraded Avantor’s Corporate Family Rating from B2 to B3 due to the acquisition’s financing and integration, but noted positively the combined company’s prospects for free cash flow and liquidity.