Deal Announcement 01/15: Pharma & MedTech

The Deal

Effective October 1, 2015, BASF SE completed the sale of its custom synthesis business and parts of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business to Siegfried Holding AG. PwC M&A acted as financial advisor to BASF SE on the sale. The enterprise value of the transaction was around €270 million. The deal comprises three production sites in Minden, Germany; Evionnaz, Switzerland; and Saint-Vulbas, France with about 850 employees globally.

PwC supported BASF in initiating a highly confidential and structured sales process with only selected strategic and financial investors to find a new best owner for the business. Key to delivering value to BASF was the in-depth market knowledge and profound understanding of the business and underlying dynamics.

The transaction will enable Siegfried to gain critical size and to play a leading role in the supplier market for pharmaceutical preparations. To ensure a smooth hand-over process especially with existing customers BASF will deliver certain services to the business also after the transaction for a limited period of time.

BASF SE

BASF is active worldwide in the fields of chemicals, plastics, performance products, crop protection products as well as oil and gas. BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, London and Zurich.

Siegfried Holding AG

The Siegfried Group is worldwide active in the field of life sciences with production facilities located in Switzerland (HQ), Germany, China, Malta and the USA. Siegfried develops and manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage forms for the pharmaceutical industry. At the end of 2014 (before the acquisition), Siegfried reported annual sales of CHF 315 million and employed approximately 1’400 employees. Siegfried Holding AG is listed on the Swiss Exchange (SIX: SFZN).

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ more than 195,000 employees in 157 countries. Our global network comprises nearly 1,550 M&A professionals all over the world, realizing approx. 390 successful transactions per year. We specialize in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatizations as well as structured financing.

The PwC M&A core team comprised: Martin Schwarzer (Partner), Alexander Wenzel (Director), Nicolas Kreuziger (Manager) and Alexander Felber (Senior Consultant).

The PwC Financial Book core team comprised: Jörg Bredy (Partner), Patrick Devine (Senior Manager).

The Strategy& core team comprised: Dr. Marcus Morawietz (Partner), Shin Soo-Hyeon (Advisor).