June 25 (Reuters) - German drugmaker Merck KGaA said on Thursday it will acquire U.S. biotech firm Bio-Techne Corp for $11.3 billion, expanding its presence in the life sciences market.
Shares of Bio-Techne rose 22% in premarket trading following Merck's offer of $73 per share, which implies a 24% premium to Bio-Techne's close on Wednesday.
With this deal, Merck will gain access to Bio-Techne's expertise and supplies of research reagents, proteins, antibodies, analytical instruments and other tools
that are used by scientists and drug developers.
The deal follows a series of large healthcare transactions this year, including Danaher's $9.9 billion acquisition of patient-monitoring company Masimo in February, as medical technology and life sciences firms seek to broaden their product offerings and gain market share across multiple segments.
The Bio-Techne acquisition is Merck's largest life sciences deal since its $17 billion takeover of Sigma-Aldrich in 2014, which bolstered the German group's laboratory supplies and research tools business and accelerated its diversification beyond pharmaceuticals.
The German firm said it would fund the Bio-Techne acquisition through a combination of cash and debt. The company has cash and cash equivalents of about 2.74 billion euros, according to its latest quarterly results.
The deal is expected to close by late 2026 or early 2027. Merck expects cost savings of about 140 million euros to be fully realized by the third year after the deal is closed.
(Reporting by Danny Callaghan, Christy Santhosh and Padmanabhan Ananthan; Editing by Linda Pasquini and Shinjini Ganguli)
