Gerresheimer to sell off non-core lab glass unit as part of delivery device focus

11-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 12-Sep-2016 at 10:08 GMT

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Gerresheimer has agreed to sell its lab glassware business to a private equity investor, describing the deal as part of an effort to focus on delivery devices and pharmaceutical packaging.

Duran group – part of JPMorgan’s merchant banking arm One Equity Partners – will pay $131m (€116m) in cash for Kimble Chase Life Science and Research Products, a US-based joint venture Gerresheimer co-owns with Chase Scientific Glass.

Uwe Röhrhoff, Gerresheimer CEO, said: “Producing laboratory glassware is not a core business for us and synergies are very limited. Together with our joint venture partner Chase Scientific Glass, Inc., we have decided to sell the business.”

Kimble Chase has manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico, Germany and China and employs 760 people.

The firm generates most of its revenues - €100.7m in 2015 – in North America.

Sales for the six months to the end of June were €47.8m, down 2.6% on the comparable period last year.

News of the planned divestiture comes a yeah and a half after Gerresheimer agreed to sell its glass tubing business to Corning.

At the timeGerresheimer said the sale was part of its strategy of focusing on the development and production of “packaging solutions and delivery devices serving our pharma customers needs."