Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Egham, UK - Royal Philips Electronics and Spectris plc, a precision instrumentation and controls company, have reached a preliminary agreement that Philips will sell its x-ray analytical business to Spectris for a total amount of 150 million Euros. Completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary consultation procedures with trade unions and works councils and clearance by the competition authorities, is expected to take place later this year.
"This decision is part of the Philips strategy to continue focusing on our main activities," says Tom Verbeek, CEO of Philips Corporate Investments. "We are pleased to have found a buyer for the major part of our analytical business, well suited to exploit the strengths of this business for further growth and expansion into new markets. We are reviewing our options with respect to the remaining parts; opto-acoustic and ellipsometry. Philips Analytical is one of twenty-seven businesses that are being prepared for divestment or merger generating, as announced earlier, an estimated 1 billion Euros."
Hans Nilsson, Chief Executive of Spectris, commented: "This acquisition is in line with our strategy. Philips Analytical's market-leading x-ray-based technologies complement our existing instrumentation businesses and enable us to enter new markets such as materials research and life sciences."
The acquisition of Philips Analytical is in line with the Spectris strategy to focus on niche businesses with good growth prospects and market-leading positions, supplying high margin products developed using proprietary technology. The business, which will be renamed PANalytical, is a logical addition to the existing Spectris instrumentation businesses and will enable the company to extend its product and service offering in the laboratory sector and in industrial process control. PANalytical will form part of the Process Technology sector.
With its headquarters in Almelo, the Netherlands, Philips Analytical's x-ray activities employ approximately 850 people in development, production, sales, service and technical support operations around the world. Philips Analytical's x-ray business had sales in 2001 of EUR 159 million.
All employees and the existing management team of Philips Analytical's x-ray business will transfer to Spectris. Philips Analytical's opto-acoustic, located in Boston, United States (approximately 35 employees) and ellipsometry activities, located in Almelo, the Netherlands and Munich, Germany (approximately 20 employees) will not be part of this transaction.
For more information on Spectris, visit www.spectris.com.