ST. LOUIS, Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich
Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL) announced today it is making
progress toward closing the planned acquisition of the Company by
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The closing is now expected
within the next two months.
On August 11, 2015, Sigma-Aldrich
and Merck announced they had obtained all necessary antitrust
approvals, with the approval of the European Commission (EC) being
conditional upon the sale of parts of Sigma-Aldrich's solvents and
inorganics business in Europe. Negotiations with potential
buyers are in the final stage. Once a binding agreement has
been signed, the EC must approve the buyer before Merck can
complete the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition.
On September 22, 2014, Merck and
Sigma-Aldrich announced they had entered into a definitive
agreement under which Merck, will acquire Sigma-Aldrich for
$17 billion - $140 cash per share,
establishing one of the leading players in the $130 billion global life science industry.
Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release
contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by
terminology such as "making progress toward," or similar
expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding
potential future revenues from products derived there from.
You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such
forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management
regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such statements. The
closing of the Transaction is subject to fulfillment of certain
commitments made to the European Commission which may occur later
than expected by the parties. There can be no guarantee that
this or any other transaction will assist Sigma-Aldrich to achieve
any particular levels of revenue in the future. In
particular, management's expectations regarding the Transaction
could be affected by, among other things, Sigma-Aldrich's ability
to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual
property protection; competition in general; government, industry
and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing
factors could have on the values attributed to Sigma-Aldrich's
assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance
sheet; and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's
current Annual Report on Form 10-K on file with the US Securities
and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those
anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this
press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation
to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press
release as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life
Science and Technology company focused on enhancing human health
and safety, manufactures and distributes 250,000 chemicals,
biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million
customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in
industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct business
units - Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial - Sigma-Aldrich is
committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life.
The Company operates in 37 countries, has approximately 9,700
employees worldwide and had sales of $2.79
billion in 2014. For more information about
Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at
www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Sigma-Aldrich is a registered
trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sigma-aldrich-and-merck-kgaa-darmstadt-germany-making-progress-toward-completion-of-planned-acquisition-300149554.html
SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich