Sartorius acquires cell culture specialist Xell AG
Extension of the Sartorius cell culture media business with a focus on media for gene therapeutics and vaccines
Sartorius, through its subgroup Sartorius Stedim Biotech, acquired cell culture specialist Xell AG headquartered in Bielefeld, Germany. Xell AG develops, produces, and markets media and feed supplements for cell cultures, especially for manufacturing viral vectors that are used in gene therapeutics and vaccines. Beyond these media, the company offers various analytical services for characterizing, screening, and quantifying media components, as well as for optimizing media composition.
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Constantin Wenning on Unsplash
Xell AG has so far been privately owned, employs around 35 people, and is expected to generate sales revenue of approximately 5 million euros at strong growth rates and a substantial two-digit EBITDA margin for the full year of 2021. Recently, a major state-of-the-art capacity expansion was completed at the company's headquarters. The contractual parties agreed on a purchase price of around 50 million euros in addition to two earn‑out components contingent upon the achievement of defined revenue targets in 2022 to 2025.
“With this acquisition, we are expanding our current media offering specifically by specialized media for manufacturing viral vectors and, additionally, in the area of media analytics. At the same time, we are accelerating the expansion of our production network in this fast-growing area,” said René Fáber, a member of the Sartorius Executive Board and Head of the Bioprocess Solutions Division. “I would like to cordially welcome the Xell team to Sartorius and am looking forward to our collaboration in this demanding time.”
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