MADRID (Reuters) – The Spanish group of blood products Grifols (MK:) announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy assets of the american Hologic by 1,750 million euros, in an acquisition, the second highest in its history, that allows you to strengthen your area of transfusions and increase profit margins.
The agreement reached includes the activities of Hologic related to the research, development and production of reagents and instrumentation technology-based NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing), which allow you to increase the safety in the diagnosis transfusion to detect the presence of infectious agents in blood donations and plasma, as indicated by Grifols.
it Is the second largest purchase in the history of Grifols after the release of about 4,000 million dollars by Talecris Biotherapeutics in 2011, surpassing the acquisition of the diagnostic unit of blood of Novartis (SIX) in 2014 for 1.680 million dollars.
The Spanish company will fund the acquisition with a loan of 1,700 million dollars agreed with Nomura and cash existing on the balance sheet of the company.
Grifols said that the subsidiary of Hologic, “presents high margins and high cash flows”, with an EBITDA over $ 160 million in the last twelve months, to September 2016.
Grifols estimates that the transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, will impact positively on the margins of a group, with a projected increase above 350 basis points, and increase the generation of operating cash flows.
The revenue of the Diagnostic division of Grifols will not vary due to the existing structure of joint partnership between Grifols and Hologic from 2014, by which Grifols already managed entirely by the marketing of this line of business.
After the purchase, the ratio of net financial debt over EBITDA of Grifols will go from 3.3-fold (to 30 September 2016) to 4.3 times (pro-forma as at 30 September 2016).
The group, which had a net financial debt at the end of September of 3,800 million, said he is “committed to quickly reduce their debt levels” and “expected to absorb the increase in debt with a greater capacity for generation of cash flows”.
Grifols had at the end of the third quarter, more than 1,300 million euros in liquidity and an available balance in case of more than 900 million euros.
REINFORCING THE DIVISION OF DIAGNOSTICS
Among the purchased assets include a production plant of San Diego (united States), and development rights, licenses on patents, and access to the product manufacturers.
“it Is a logical step that allows us to strengthen the leadership in diagnostic transfusion started in 2014 with the purchase of assets to Novartis,” said Víctor Grífols, the president and, until January of 2017, ceo of the company.
“This operation allowed us to expand our capabilities and be one of the only companies capable of offering solutions to blood donation centres and blood, from donation to transfusion. Now, with this new transaction, we complement our vertical integration by controlling also the phases of production and R & D”, he added.
Until now, on the basis of the existing agreement with Hologic, Grifols is selling reagents and instruments of the society on a global level.
The Diagnostic division, which will continue to account for around 16 per cent of the volume of total income of Grifols, will increase its EBITDA margin to the 40 percent with this operation.
(Information from Emma Pinedo; writing by Tomas Cobos; edited by Jesus Aguado)
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