Thermo Fisher to buy FEI in $4.2bn deal

Thermo Fisher Scientific has agreed to buy lab equipment company FEI for $107.50 per share in cash, or around $4.2bn.

Oregon-based FEI, which manufactures transmission electron microscopes and scanning electron microscopes and had revenues of $930m in 2015, will become part of Thermo Fisher’s Analytical Instruments Segment.

Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher, said: “The addition of FEI’s leading electron microscopy platform is an outstanding strategic fit with our company and will create significant value for our customers and our shareholders.

“In life sciences, there is growing adoption of electron microscopy to study the structure of proteins. The technologies we gain with FEI will complement our mass spectrometry leadership, putting Thermo Fisher in the best position to capitalise on this important trend. As the unrivaled leader in life sciences, we will also be able to leverage our global scale and commercial reach to extend the use of FEI’s products within our large biopharma customer base. Finally, the transaction will be immediately accretive to our earnings and will create value for our shareholders through cost and revenue synergies.”

The deal is expected to be accretive to Thermo Fisher’s adjusted earnings per share by $0.30 in the first full year after close. Thermo said it expects to realise total synergies of around $80m by year three after the close, consisting of approximately $55m of cost synergies and approximately $25m of adjusted operating income benefit from revenue-related synergies.

Fisher said the transaction is likely to complete early next year.

At 1455 BST, Thermo Fisher shares were up 0.2% to $151.56.