Bruker AXS GmbH announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the equity of privately-held JUWE Laborgeraete GmbH from its founders. A stock purchase agreement was signed on December 21, 2007 and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. JUWE's estimated 2007 revenue was approximately $3 million. Purchase price details were not disclosed.
JUWE was established in 1997 by a dedicated group of founders with many years of experience in combustion analysis of the CHNOS light elements (Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur), as a successor organization to Stroehlein AG, which closed down in 1997. JUWE initially provided service and support for the large installed base of Stroehlein systems, and in 2004 launched a new generation of JUWE-branded combustion analysis systems. JUWE, located in Viersen, Germany, today develops, manufactures and distributes advanced combustion analysis systems for various C, H, N, O and S elemental analysis applications used in:
-- metals foundries and processing;
-- organic chemistry, pharma production, refineries, petrochemistry;
-- aerospace, automotive and power industries;
-- electrical and mechanical engineering companies;
-- semiconductor technology;
-- steel and building construction, bridge construction;
-- raw and basic materials, ceramics; and
-- materials research institutes.
The market for combustion analysis has been growing significantly in recent years, with an estimated total market size of greater than $150 million in 2007. CHNOS combustion analysis (CA) is a complementary elemental analysis technology to the arc/spark optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) product lines in the Bruker AXS group.
After the closing of the planned acquisition of JUWE by Bruker AXS in early 2008, it is anticipated that a renamed Bruker JUWE GmbH will systematically transfer its R&D, production, service and customer applications, demonstration and training center to Kalkar, Germany. At the combined Kalkar facility, Bruker JUWE together with spark-OES company Bruker Quantron GmbH will form a center of excellence for elemental analysis, particularly for metals analysis applications.
Bruker AXS will contribute its global distribution, demonstration and service capabilities, as well as R&D and operating management assistance, in order to further accelerate the revenue and margin growth of Bruker JUWE. Many of the successful distributors of JUWE are expected to be retained and will benefit from support provided by additional regional Bruker AXS elemental analysis applications and service centers worldwide.
Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Erwin Jung, a co-founder and Managing Director of JUWE, stated: "The speed with which JUWE has been growing in the past two years has shown that we have the right team and product ideas. In order to maintain this rapid growth, we have been looking for a complementary strategic partner. In Bruker AXS we have found a company from the same industry that can positively contribute to every aspect of JUWE's business."
Mr. Karl-Josef Weifels, the other co-founder and Managing Director of JUWE, continued: "In particular, Bruker AXS can establish access to the Asian and American markets for JUWE, which should enable additional rapid revenue growth for our combustion analyzers. The combined Bruker JUWE resources will also create synergies in R&D and production, and will enable us to provide even better service to our customers worldwide."
Mr. Bernard Kolodziej, Managing Director of Bruker AXS GmbH, commented: "We are very excited to have Karl-Josef Weifels, Erwin Jung and the very capable and experienced JUWE team join our Bruker AXS elemental analysis business. We are impressed by their advanced, yet robust, combustion analysis technology, and we believe that we can help the future Bruker JUWE accelerate its growth and global market penetration."
Mr. Paul Friedhoff, the founder and Executive Chairman of Bruker Quantron GmbH, added: "The JUWE combustion analysis systems and technology are very complementary to our spark-OES product line, as well as to Bruker AXS' XRF systems. The addition of Bruker JUWE will make it possible to offer the various elemental analysis technologies from a single source in the future, and will further strengthen our combined industrial analysis business. I welcome the Bruker JUWE team to our elemental analysis center of excellence in Kalkar."
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