Panasonic Healthcare to acquire Bayer Diabetes for €1bn

Japan’s Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Company, which is 80 percent owned by KKR, has agreed to acquire Bayer Diabetes Care from Germany's Bayer AG for about €1 billion ($1.1 billion; £731 million), according to a statement.

Panasonic Healthcare is putting up the capital for the transaction. The deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2016 subject to anti-trust clearance.

Bayer Diabetes operates in more than 125 countries to provide blood glucose monitoring systems and has marketed and distributed products from Panasonic Healthcare Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the holding company, for more than 20 years. Bayer Diabetes reported sales of €909 million in 2014.

Panasonic Healthcare Company is an integrated healthcare company that supplies diabetes monitoring and specialised laboratory equipment, as well as clinical healthcare IT systems.

Its president and CEO Kenji Yamane, said: “Since first taking steps to becoming an independent healthcare company from Panasonic Corporation through KKR’s investment, it has been our key management objective to form strong partnerships with strategically pivotal companies.”

KKR bought the majority stake in Panasonic Healthcare Holdings in 2014 for $1.67 billion, as previously reported by Private Equity International. Panasonic retains the remaining 20 percent stake.

The acquisition was followed in 2015 by KKR’s acquisition of an 85.05 percent stake in Japan's Pioneer DJ, a DJ equipment business in which Pioneer Foundation retains the remaining shares, as previously reported by PEI.

Both stakes were acquired through the KKR Asian II fund that closed at $6 billion in 2013.