Lonza Group AG, KKR and Capsugel S.A. have entered into a definitive agreement under which Lonza will acquire Capsugel from KKR for $5.5 billion in cash. The acquisition is part of Lonza’s strategy to grow its existing offerings and open up new market opportunities in the pharma and consumer healthcare and nutrition industries. Capsugel expands Lonza’s market reach and contract development and manufacturing products businesses.
 
The acquisition aims to integrate services in drug development, formulation, delivery technologies and manufacturing for the global pharma and consumer healthcare industries. The combined business will offer an integrated portfolio of technologies, from active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) through excipients to dosage forms and delivery technologies.
 
Capsugel brings advanced oral dosage delivery technologies, including its hard capsule technologies, and the combined technologies and offerings will provide services in both large and small molecules.
 
The acquisition is also expected to enhance Lonza’s consumer healthcare and nutrition services for active ingredients, oral dosage forms, development services and delivery technologies. The combined business will also be able to leverage its bioavailability technology to create a new dietary ingredient-ready offering.
 
Capsugel has approximately 3,600 employees and 13 facilities on three continents. The combined business would have had combined 2015 revenues of approximately CHF 4.8 billion.
 
Richard Ridinger, chief executive officer of Lonza, said, “The acquisition of Capsugel meets Lonza’s strategic and financial goals. It accelerates our healthcare continuum strategy by giving us broader exposure to the fast-growing pharma and consumer healthcare markets. We expect the transaction to be accretive to our core earnings per share in the first full year post closing.”
 
He added, “This new integrated approach will benefit our customers, who will gain from the simplicity and efficiency of working with one company that can provide world-leading support from APIs to excipients and dosage forms. The combined business will allow us to partner with our customers to help them bring highly differentiated products to market more quickly and efficiently.”
 
Guido Driesen, president and chief executive officer of Capsugel, said, “This transaction brings together two leading companies that share a common vision – to deliver real value to customers by accelerating their ability to develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceutical and healthcare products. The combination of our complementary technology platforms will put us in a strong position to benefit from evolving trends in the pharma and consumer healthcare markets.”