Grifols To Buy Hologic's NAT Donor Screening Unit For $1.85 Bln

(RTTNews) - Grifols (GRFS), Wednesday said it agreed to buy Nucleic Acid Testing donor screening unit from the U.S. company Hologic for $1.85 billion.

This agreement encompasses research, development and manufacture of assays and instruments activities using NAT technology that makes possible to detect the presence of infectious agents in blood and plasma donations, contributing to greater transfusion safety.

The assets acquired comprise a production plant in San Diego as well as development rights, licenses to patents and access to product manufacturers.

Victor Grífols Sr, Chairman and CEO of Grifols said, "This acquisition is part of the growth strategy foreseen for the Diagnostic Division. It is an obvious step that allows us to strengthen a leading position that we first achieved in 2014 in transfusion diagnostics with the acquisition of assets from Novartis, which, among other things, included the rights to market transfusion medicine assays and instruments using NAT technology."

Grifols expects the transaction to positively impact group margins and bolster generation of operating cash flows.

Grifols plans to finance the acquisition with $1.70 billion term loan and existing cash on the balance sheet.