Azenta to acquire Barkey Holding for EUR 80M

Azenta, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Barkey Holding GmbH and its subsidiaries, a provider of controlled rate thawing devices to medical, biotech and pharma industries. Barkey is headquartered in Leopoldshohe, Germany. Barkey has over four decades of expertise in the automated thawing of plasma, blood and stem cells and has more recently focused on cell and gene therapy applications. Its key product lines are used for controlled rate thawing of cryopreserved samples and therapies. These products are used in R&D, clinical trials, GMP manufacturing and in hospitals. Barkey's plasmatherm product is an automated cell thawing device approved by the FDA as a medical device for clinical use. The total cash purchase price for the acquisition will be approximately EUR 80M. The transaction is expected to close in early July upon satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Co-owners Chris Barkey and Thomas Barkey, and COO Armin Nowack, who have led the company for over 20 years, will join Azenta and continue to lead the business as part of the Life Sciences Products segment. Barkey generated approximately EUR 17M in revenue over the last twelve months ending March 31st. The company expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings immediately and to become accretive to GAAP-based earnings within the first year of ownership.