Merck Acquires Sigma-Aldrich for

Nigel Thomas
22 Sep, 2014
New York City

Sweden based Investor AB agreed to buy additional shares of Wartsila for

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Investor agreed to buy additional shares of Wartsila for €639 million. Merck agreed to acquire Sigma-Aldrich for €13 billion.Siemens plans to acquire Dresser-Rand for $7.6 billion and home-appliance business to Robert Bosch GmbH for €3 billion.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index declined 1% or 68.33 to 6,769.59 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 0.5% or 46.78 to 9,752.48.

In Paris, CAC 40 index dropped 0.5% or 22.10 to 4,439.12.

Investor AB gained 0.7% to 251.40 kronor after the Sweden-based industrial investment company agreed to buy additional shares in Finland-based Wartsila Oyj Abp, the ship engines and power plants maker from Fiskars Oyj Abp for €639 million or $824 million.

The transaction is expected to complete within the coming weeks.

Merck KGaA soared 5% to €73.10 after the Germany-based pharmaceutical group agreed to acquire the U.S.-based Sigma-Aldrich for €13.1 billion or $17 billion in cash. The company estimated to achieve approximately €260 million per year synergies.

Merck acquire all shares for $140 per share, this represents 37% premium from the last closing price of $102.37 on September 19. The transaction is expected to close in mid of 2015.

Siemens AG slid 0.2% to €96.26 after the Germany-based industrial conglomerate said it may acquire U.S.-based oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand Group Inc for $7.6 billion.

Separately, the industrial conglomerate agreed to sell its entire stake of home-appliance business to Robert Bosch GmbH for €3 billion or $3.86 billion from joint venture of BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH.

The transaction is expected to complete in the first-half of the next year.

Today, the company also received repeated fifth order from Chengdu Cryogenic Liquidation Equipment Co., Ltd. to provide two compressor trains for a liquefied natural gas project in China with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons of LNG.

The project is planned to be put into operation in December 2015.

The Sage Group Plc rose 0.1% to 376.40 pence after the U.K.-based enterprise accounting and payroll software provider agreed to buy the U.S.-based PAI Group, Inc, payroll and HR services provider for £96.9 million or $157.8 million in cash.

Transaction is expected to be completed in October.

Tesco Plc plunged 12.3% to 201.38 pence after the U.K.-based food retailer issued its fourth profit warning for the six months to 23 August and said investigating about overstated its most recent profit outlook by £250 million or $408.8 million.