PARIS, FRANCE: Eurofins Scientific, the global leader in food testing and a global scientific leader in bioanalytical testing, announces the signing of an agreement to divest its Digital Testing business to Stirling Square Capital Partners for €220m on a cash and debt free basis.

This business contributes approximately 1 percent of the Group’s sales and employs over 600 staff.

Eurofins’ Digital Testing was established in 2015 and has increased substantially in size and profitability over the past few years through organic growth, strategic investments and bolt-on acquisitions to expand its range of digital testing tools and services as well as its global reach.

Eurofins Digital Testing provides global testing, quality assurance and technical analysis of digital systems, devices, content and cyber security. It is recognised as one of the leading players in its space in terms of technology, innovation and service quality.

Dr Gilles Martin, Eurofins CEO, says: “Over the last 7 years, Eurofins Digital Testing has successfully grown to become a recognised leader in its space. In order to facilitate its further development, we have decided to pass the ownership of the business to Stirling Square. We wish the team at Eurofins Digital Testing further success on their onward journey.”

For Eurofins, proceeds from the divestment will support the Group’s capital allocation priorities, including capital expenditure in laboratories, digitalisation and acquisitions to further enhance its leadership in bioanalytical testing and other life science areas. Completion of the transaction is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities and is expected to occur before the end of 2022.

Baird acted as M&A advisor to Eurofins on this transaction.

Eurofins is the global leader in food, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetic product testing, and in discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and agroscience Contract Research services.

Eurofins is also a market leader in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, and in the support of clinical studies, as well as in BioPharma Contract Development and Manufacturing. The Group also has a rapidly developing presence in highly specialised and molecular clinical diagnostic testing and in-vitro diagnostic products.

With over 61,000 staff across a decentralised and entrepreneurial network of 940 laboratories in 59 countries, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of a wide range of products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services and in-vitro diagnostic products.

Stirling Square Capital Partners was established in 2002 as a pan-European private equity firm which invests in mid-market companies with enterprise value of €100m to €500m. The firm manages over €2.5bn on behalf of a global and diverse investor base.