Private equity firm KKR has offered to buy all shares in Swedish life sciences company Biotage for Skr11.6bn ($1.2bn).
The public cash offer, via a newly formed company by KKR called RWK BidCo, is for Skr145 per share in Biotage. The offer, made on 22 April, represents a 60.1% premium on the life science group’s last closing share price on 17 April.
Shares in Stockholm-listed Biotage surged 36% at market open on 22 April following the offer. The company has a market cap of $1.2bn.
Based on a full evaluation and assessment of the US private equity firm’s takeover bid, Biotage’s board has recommended to shareholders that the offer be accepted.
The deal comes amid a dry patch for mergers and acquisitions involving US equity due to US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, however KKR seems to be bucking that trend. The firm stuck another sizeable healthcare deal recently, agreeing to acquire E45 maker Karo Healthcare – also Stockholm-based – for €2.6bn ($3bn) earlier in April.
Biotage develops products used in drug discovery and development, including synthesisers, purification systems, and evaporators, amongst others. It also provides products for clinical and bioanalytical testing and toxicology.
KKR already owns a 17% stake in Biotage through Gamma Biosciences, a life sciences tool investment platform it created in 2019. It soon could have full ownership of a company that struggled financially in the past year.
Releasing its interim Q1 report on the same day, Biotage reported a sales decrease of nearly 20% compared to the same period in 2024. The life sciences group has previously highlighted the volatility within the bioprocessing market. Other big companies such as Merck’s life science division MilliporeSigma has also felt the effects of the sector’s low customer numbers.
Despite Biotage seeing stronger demand in the drug discovery segment and peptide system manufacturing, the company deemed KKR as having “the potential to leverage its network of industrial advisers to accelerate the company’s scale-up in a private setting in the years ahead.”
Although the board admitted it sees additional value held by Biotage that is not fully reflected in KKR’s offer, it “recognises that there are risks related thereto and the associated short-term volatility”.
Biotage’s CEO Frederic Vanderhaegen said in a statement following the Q1 results: “We remain confident in our future mid to long-term outlook while managing the short-term headwinds with a right-sized cost base.”
