Merck KGaA secures all approvals for Sigma-Aldrich acquisition

11 August 2015

German drugmaker Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) on Tuesday said it has secured all approvals have been for its planned acquisition of US-based life science company Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL).

The company in a statement said that, with the approval from Brazil's Council for Economic Defense, it now has regulatory go-ahead from all jurisdictions. The clearance will be effective after a common waiting period of 15 days. The regulatory nod follows recently received antitrust approvals from the competition authorities of Israel and South Korea.

Merck expects the completion of the transaction in the third quarter 2015. The closing of the transaction is still subject to the commitments made to the European Commission, following its conditional approval of the transaction, announced on June 15. As a result, Merck and Sigma-Aldrich have agreed to sell parts of Sigma-Aldrich's solvents and inorganics business in Europe.

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