Merck finalises acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich

Merck has announced the completion of its $17 billion (11.12 billion pounds) takeover of the life science company Sigma-Aldrich.

The completion of the deal gives the company a leading position in the $130 billion global life science industry, with around 50,000 employees in 67 countries, working at 72 manufacturing sites worldwide.

With combined pro forma full-year life science sales of 4.6 billion euros (3.22 billion pounds) in 2014, the new-look company expects its sales to come between 12.6 billion and 12.8 billion euros in 2015.

Between the Sigma-Aldrich, SAFC, BioReliance, Millipore and Milli-Q brands, the firm's supply chain is expected to handle the delivery of more than 300,000 products worldwide.

Karl-Ludwig Kley, chief executive officer and chairman of Merck, said: "The acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich marks the culmination of almost a decade of transformation, further affirming that Merck is a leading science and technology company."

Formerly known as Merck KGaA, the firm was recently rebranded to be known simply as Merck across all of its business operations in all regions other than the US and Canada, where it will continue to operate under the EMD name.