Sartorius Stedim Biotech Announces Offer to Acquire UK Company TAP Biosystems Group plc

Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a leading global supplier for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, has made a cash offer to acquire the UK company TAP Biosystems Group plc (TAP Biosystems) through its wholly owned subsidiary Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH.

The proposed transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of TAP’s shareholders, values the equity of TAP Biosystems at approximately €33 million. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close at the end of 2013. 

In making the announcement, Joachim Kreuzburg, the Chief Executive of Sartorius Stedim Biotech, stated: “TAP Biosystems’ fermentors are a great fit extending our reach into the small-scale cell culture applications. Adding capabilities in the early steps of upstream bioprocessing will enable us to provide our biopharma customers highly effective and scalable solutions to accelerate cell line selection, speed-up process development and ultimately help them bringing their biologics to market faster.”  

TAP Biosystems plc specialises in the design and development of small-scale, multi-parallel fermentation systems particularly for biopharmaceutical applications. With its ambr-product family, the company has launched a novel platform technology for single-use fermentation that is designed to mimic mammalian cell culture at small scale, a highly innovative alternative to conventional systems. Furthermore TAP Biosystem’s portfolio includes automated cell processing systems and other bench top equipment. Founded in 1987, the company is headquartered in Royston, UK, and has a sales and support facility near Wilmington, Delaware, USA. TAP Biosystems generated sales revenue of approximately €26 million in 2012/13 and employs about 160 people worldwide.   

Welcoming the acquisition, David Newble, CEO of TAP Biosystems, said: “As a market leader in bioprocessing technologies with a strong position in fermentation, Sartorius Stedim Biotech is well-placed to maximise the opportunities of our novel, highly innovative cell culture technologies. We look forward to joining such a well-recognised organisation as Sartorius Stedim that will enable us to grow our business further with a wealth of complementary technologies and products.” 

 
For further transaction details please refer to the section “Offer to acquire TAP Biosystems” at www.sartorius.com