Deal Announcement 8/22: Chemicals / Pharma&MedTech

The Deal

The PwC M&A team is pleased to announce the successful sale of Central Glass Germany GmbH (“Central Glass Germany”) to Evotec SE. PwC Germany exclusively advised the Japanese listed chemicals company Central Glass Co. Ltd. on this transaction. Central Glass Germany, now Evotec Drug Substance (Germany) GmbH ("Evotec DS"), is headquartered in Halle/Westphalia and produces fine chemicals for industrial and pharmaceutical use. The facility has highly flexible drug substance manufacturing capabilities and is EU cGMP-certified. After a strategic review, Central Glass Co. Ltd. made the decision to sell its entire stake in the company.

With the acquisition of Central Glass Germany, Evotec intends to further expand its clinical and commercial manufacturing platform and to drive the development of new medicines together with the highly skilled employees of Central Glass Germany.

The share purchase agreement was signed in August 2022 and completed on 1 November 2022.

Central Glass Germany GmbH

Central Glass Germany, now Evotec DS, headquartered in Halle/Westphalia, is a leading provider of CDMO services in the field of specialty chemicals with a particular focus on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Backed by a team of approximately 60 chemical manufacturing experts, Central Glass Germany operates an EU cGMP-certified production and development facility on more than 5,000 square meters and offers highly flexible production capabilities. Central Glass Germany´s outstanding expertise in process development ranges from small quantities for laboratory use and pilot testing, to larger quantities for commercial production.

Central Glass Co. Ltd.

Central Glass Co. Ltd. (“Central Glass”), headquartered in Tokyo, is a leading chemical manufacturing company with a focus on two main business areas, glass and chemicals. It engages in the development, production and sale of a wide range of glass products such as architectural and automotive glass as well as chemicals, fine chemicals and fertilizers on a global scale. The company employs around 5,400 employees world-wide.

Evotec SE

Evotec is a life science company with a unique business model focused on delivering highly effective new therapeutics to the patients. The Company leverages its multimodality platform, the “Data-driven R&D Autobahn to Cures”, for proprietary projects and within a network of partners including Pharma, Biotech, academics, and other healthcare stakeholders. With more than 4,500 highly qualified people at 17 sites, Evotec aims to create the world-leading co-owned pipeline for innovative therapeutics.

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ more than 295,000 people in 156 countries. Our global network comprises over 2,900 M&A professionals all over the world, realising approx. 400 successful transactions per year. We specialise in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatisations as well as structured financing.

PwC M&A Germany acted as exclusive financial advisor to Central Glass on this transaction. The transaction was led by Dr. Alexander von Friesen (Partner) and Michaela Grübel (Senior Manager) and supported by Lucas Busch (Associate), Julian Fischer (Associate) and Alisa Trefz (Associate). Significant assistance during the process was provided by Kuniaki Okazaki from the PwC Japanese desk in Düsseldorf.

In addition, the process was supported by a wide range of PwC teams, advising on multiple aspects surrounding the transaction including Financial Factbook (Andreas Koletzko), Operational Factbook (Friederich von Hurter), Virtual Site Visit (Neil Siri) and Tax Implications (Prof. Dr. Uwe Hohage).