Life sciences and diagnostics company Bruker has agreed to acquire ELITechGroup, a provider of in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) systems, in a €870m ($942m) cash deal.
ELITechGroup will be acquired from TecFin, a controlled affiliate of pre-eminent private equity company PAI Partners.
However, the transaction excludes ELITech's clinical chemistry business, which is being carved out.
Earlier, Bruker signed a put option agreement with PAI Partners, pending workers’ council consultations in France and the Netherlands. The option, which has now been exercised, places the parties into a binding share purchase agreement.
Subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the transaction is planned to close in the second quarter of 2024.
With over 500 employees and more than 40 active patents, ELITechGroup is engaged in developing and commercialising proprietary molecular diagnostic (MDx) systems and assays, as well as niche biomedical systems and microbiology products.
Known for its molecular diagnostic systems such as InGenius and BeGenius, the company has achieved revenues of approximately €150m in 2023.
Bruker microbiology and infection diagnostics division president Dr Wolfgang Pusch said: “The ELITech MDx business will give Bruker access to modern sample-to-answer (S2A) systems and a broad infectious disease assay portfolio, including viral testing.
“ELITech’s breadth of the testing menu, ease of use, and fast time-to-result complements Bruker’s novel LiquidArray syndromic panels, speciality fungal infection, tuberculosis, mycobacteria and HIV MDx portfolio.
“The ELITech esoteric molecular diagnostics portfolio is nicely complementary to our MALDI Biotyper microbial identification platform in infectious disease diagnostics, and both together establish Bruker as an innovative and growing ’Tier 2’ infectious disease specialist in the in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market.”
The acquisition is set to enhance Bruker's microbiology and infection diagnostics division within the Bruker CALID Group, with ELITech expected to operate as a stand-alone business.
Bruker expects the acquisition to bolster its position in the medical diagnostics market.
Last year, Bruker signed a collaboration and quality agreement with Accelerate Diagnostics to validate the use of the Arc system with the MALDI Biotyper system.
