KKR to acquire Biotage
- karldumasia
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
Date Announced: 22/04/25
Target Advisors: Undisclosed
Acquirer Advisors: Undisclosed
On April 22nd, 2025, KKR, an American global private-equity company, announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Biotage, a Swedish manufacturer of medical devices. Whilst the exact terms of the agreement are unknown, the acquisition will cost KKR approximately SEK 11.6bn (approximately USD 1.21bn), presumably all-cash. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
Company Details (Acquirer – KKR)
KKR & Co. Inc. is a leading global investment firm offering alternative asset management, capital markets, and insurance solutions. With over USD 600bn in assets under management, KKR has a diverse portfolio, including investments in consumer health sectors. Notable holdings include stakes in Flora Food Group and Wella.
Company Details (Target – Biotage)
Based in Uppsala, Sweden, Biotage is a global life sciences company specializing in separation and purification technologies. Its products support drug discovery, diagnostics, and environmental testing, with a presence in over 70 countries. Biotage generates strong recurring revenue through consumables and reported over SEK 1.5bn (USD 160mn) in sales in FY23
Deal Details and Rationale
KKR’s acquisition of Biotage marks a calculated entry into the highly specialized life sciences tools market, an increasingly attractive vertical for private equity due to its recurring revenues, defensible margins and exposure to biopharma R&D spending. The implied valuation represents a sizable premium and suggests an EV/EBITDA multiple in the mid-to-high teens, assuming Biotage’s FY2023 EBITDA of SEK 400–450mn (USD 42-46mn). This aligns with recent precedent transactions in the space, such as Sartorius’ USD 450mn acquisition of Albumedix in 2022 and Thermo Fisher’s USD 2.8bn deal for ‘The Binding Site’, an immune disease specialist in 2023, both of which highlight investor appetite for scalable lab-tech platforms with strong consumables revenue.
This deal is underpinned by Biotage’s evolution into a global player in sample prep and chromatography critical workflows in pharmaceutical and diagnostic development. With a footprint spanning over 70 countries, Biotage has successfully built a consumables-led model, which PE investors favour for its stable cash flows and low capital intensity. KKR likely sees Biotage as a springboard for a broader platform strategy, with potential for bolt-on acquisitions in adjacent lab tech verticals, ranging from nucleic acid purification to clinical diagnostics.
The strategic logic follows a familiar KKR playbook: identify a fragmented sector with high gross margins, acquire a leader with global reach, then grow through operational improvement and inorganic expansion. This approach mirrors KKR’s 2020 acquisition of US-based life sciences supplier Capsugel (sold on to Lonza for USD 5.5bn) and its 2013 purchase of Panasonic Healthcare, which it scaled aggressively through bolt-on acquisitions before exiting to PHC Holdings. Biotage offers a similar opportunity international presence, sticky customer base and room to consolidate R&D-heavy but under-managed peers.
Still, there are execution risks. Biotage’s historical growth has been partly inorganic and integration missteps could erode the high customer retention rates that underpin its consumables revenue. Moreover, lab instrumentation spending remains cyclically exposed to macro-driven capex cuts in pharma and academia. KKR must balance investment in R&D with cost discipline to maintain competitiveness, particularly as it looks to drive margin uplift.
This acquisition is a bet on the structural resilience and long-term tailwinds of the lab tools market. If KKR executes well investing in salesforce productivity, optimizing supply chains, and layering in high-margin bolt-on’s, Biotage could become a cornerstone asset in its healthcare portfolio, setting the stage for a high-return exit via IPO or trade sale within five years.
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