Waters Acquires SFC Company
Waters and Thar have been selling SFC-MS systems since 2005 (see IBO 5/15/05). In 2007, Waters made a $3.5 million investment in the company, and the companies signed an exclusive OEM agreement (see IBO 10/15/07). With little competition and an established technology, Waters will be able to effectively grow the business. In its announcement of the acquisition, Waters highlighted the environmental advantages of SFC, which uses carbon dioxide as the main mobile phase.
Milford, MA 2/2/09—Waters announced that it has acquired the remaining outstanding capital stock of Thar Instruments for an undisclosed amount. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Thar Instruments is a manufacturer of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) systems and products, with annual revenues of approximately $18 million. The acquisition is estimated to be neutral to Waters’s 2009 earnings. “By combining Thar’s advanced SFC instrumentation with Waters chromatography expertise, Waters is committed to bringing the benefits of SFC to more laboratories for analytical and purification applications worldwide,” stated Dr. Rohit Khanna, vice president, Worldwide Marketing for the Waters Division.
