Sigma-Aldrich receives approval from Brazil for planned acquisition

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation on Aug. 11 announced that it has obtained unconditional approval from Brazil's Council for Economic Defense, the final unresolved approval required for the planned acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

This clearance will be effective after a waiting period of 15 days and follows recently received antitrust approvals from the competition authorities of Israel and South Korea.

On Sept. 22, 2014, Merck and Sigma-Aldrich announced they had entered into a definitive agreement in which Merck will acquire Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion.

The completion of the transaction is expected for the third quarter of 2015. The closing of the transaction is still subject to the company's fulfillment of the commitments made to the European Commission (EC), following the EC's conditional approval of the transaction on June 15, 2015.

Sigma-Aldrich is a life science and technology company focused on enhancing human health and safety. The company manufactures and distributes 250,000 chemicals, biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in industrial and commercial markets. Sigma has the business units: research, applied and SAFC Commercial. The company operates in 37 countries, has approximately 9,300 employees worldwide; in 2014, it had sales of $2.79 billion in 2014.