Lonza to Acquire Capsugel to Create Leading Integrated Solutions Provider to the Global Pharma and Consumer Healthcare Industries

On Dec 15, 2016

Basel, Switzerland-based Lonza Group AG, KKR and Morristown-based Capsugel S.A. (“Capsugel”) enter into a definitive agreement under which Lonza will acquire Capsugel from KKR for $5.5 billion in cash, including refinancing of existing Capsugel debt of approximately $2 billion, through a transaction that has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both Lonza and Capsugel. The transaction will be financed with a combination of debt and equity financing.

With the acquisition of Capsugel, Lonza will add a trusted brand with a large breadth of technologies and will expand the market reach of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and products businesses. It will also support Lonza’s strategic ambition of getting closer to the patient and end consumer.

With the addition of Capsugel’s world-leading advanced oral dosage delivery technologies, including its leading position in hard capsule technologies, Lonza will become the partner of choice for its pharma customers along the entire value chain. The combined technologies and offerings will provide customers innovative solutions in both large and small molecules and solidify Lonza’s position as the partner best able to support the pharma industry by bringing new, differentiated medicines to market rapidly and efficiently.

In addition, the acquisition is expected to strengthen Lonza’s position in consumer healthcare and nutrition as Lonza becomes a fully integrated and innovative service provider of active ingredients, oral dosage forms, development services and delivery technologies. As a result, Lonza will be well positioned to meet the increasing need for optimized consumer health and nutrition through a wide offering of next-generation dosage forms. The combined business will also be able to leverage its bioavailability technology to create a new dietary ingredient-ready offering, as well as capitalize on its formulation expertise to develop new ingredients and to market new combination products.

With approximately 3,600 employees and 13 facilities on three continents, Capsugel has a customer-centric, entrepreneurial and collaborative culture that closely aligns with Lonza’s corporate culture. Both companies focus on quality, operational excellence and delivering on promises.

Richard Ridinger, Chief Executive Officer of Lonza, commented, “The acquisition of Capsugel meets Lonza’s strategic and financial goals. It accelerates our healthcare continuum strategy by giving us broader exposure to the fast-growing pharma and consumer healthcare markets. We expect the transaction to be accretive to our core earnings per share in the first full year post closing.”

He explained further, “This new integrated approach will benefit our customers, who will gain from the simplicity and efficiency of working with one company that can provide world-leading support from APIs to excipients and dosage forms. The combined business will allow us to partner with our customers to help them bring highly differentiated products to market more quickly and efficiently.”

Guido Driesen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Capsugel, said, “This transaction brings together two leading companies that share a common vision – to deliver real value to customers by accelerating their ability to develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceutical and healthcare products. The combination of our complementary technology platforms will put us in a strong position to benefit from evolving trends in the pharma and consumer healthcare markets.”

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