ST. LOUIS, Aug. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich
Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL) announced today it has secured
unconditional approval from Brazil's Council for Economic Defense (CADE),
the final outstanding approval required for the planned acquisition
of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (the "Transaction"). This
clearance, which will be effective after a waiting period of 15
days, follows recently received antitrust approvals from the
competition authorities of Israel
(IAA) and South Korea (KFTC).
On September 22, 2014, Merck and
Sigma-Aldrich announced they had entered into a definitive
agreement under which Merck, will acquire Sigma-Aldrich for
$17 billion - $140 cash per share,
establishing one of the leading players in the $130 billion global life science industry.
With the aforementioned clearances now in hand, both companies
continue to work toward a Q3 2015 completion of the Transaction.
The closing of the Transaction is still subject to the
Company's fulfillment of the commitments made to the European
Commission (EC), following the EC's conditional approval of the
transaction on June 15, 2015.
Pursuant to those commitments, Merck and Sigma-Aldrich have agreed
to sell parts of Sigma-Aldrich's solvents and inorganics business
in Europe. In order to provide sufficient time to fulfill
those commitments, the term of the Merger Agreement dated
September 22, 2014, has been
extended.
Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release
contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by
terminology such as "continue to work toward," "have agreed," or
similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions
regarding potential future revenues from products derived there
from. You should not place undue reliance on these
statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the
current views of management regarding future events, and involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause actual results to be materially different from any future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
statements. The closing of the Transaction is subject to
fulfillment of certain commitments made to the European Commission
which may occur later than expected by the parties. There can
be no guarantee that this or any other transaction will assist
Sigma-Aldrich to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the
future. In particular, management's expectations regarding
the Transaction could be affected by, among other things,
Sigma-Aldrich's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other
proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in
general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures;
the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values
attributed to Sigma-Aldrich's assets and liabilities as recorded in
its consolidated balance sheet; and other risks and factors
referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Annual Report on Form 10-K
on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect,
actual results may vary materially from those anticipated,
believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing
the information in this press release as of this date and does not
undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements
contained in this press release as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life
Science and Technology company focused on enhancing human health
and safety, manufactures and distributes 250,000 chemicals,
biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million
customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in
industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct
business units - Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial -
Sigma-Aldrich is committed to enabling science to improve the
quality of life. The Company operates in 37 countries, has
approximately 9,300 employees worldwide and had sales of
$2.79 billion in 2014. For more
information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at
www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Sigma-Aldrich is a registered
trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.
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SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich Corporation