Months of speculation about buyout interest in Qiagen ended on Wednesday with a signed agreement. The buyer is a holding company controlled by EQT's eleventh flagship fund, with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as co-investors. It will pay €46.50 in cash per share, a 40.3% premium to the closing price on July 8, the last session before reports of private equity interest surfaced, valuing the business at about €10.8 billion including net debt, and both of Qiagen's boards unanimously recommend acceptance, the company said in a release. The boards reached that view after reviewing strategic options, including conversations with industry buyers as well as financial ones. The company will keep its name, and EQT has committed to research spending, brands, and the operational footprint.
Qiagen's products sit at the start of the molecular testing chain. Its kits and instruments extract DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood and tissue, and its assays and software prepare those molecules for analysis in university labs, drug companies, forensic units, and hospitals. The company is headquartered in Venlo, Netherlands, and its shares trade in Frankfurt and New York. Its annual filing shows revenue reached $2.1 billion in 2025. The year since has been harder. In April, management cut its 2026 sales-growth outlook to about 1% to 2% at constant currency, from at least 5%, citing more cautious US life-science spending and reduced immigration-related tuberculosis testing, according to its first-quarter earnings call. A leadership change followed, with Jonathan Pratt now chief executive.
Interest in buying the company is not new. Reuters Breakingviews noted that the new price is only slightly above an offer shareholders turned down in 2020. This time, the boards support the deal. The offer document needs clearance from German regulator BaFin, with a parallel tender filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The release said closing is expected in mid-2027 and will require a majority of shares to be tendered, shareholder approval of post-closing measures at an extraordinary meeting, and antitrust and foreign-investment clearances. If regulatory delays push completion beyond ten months, Qiagen may pay an interim dividend of up to $0.47 per share without reducing the offer price, the release said. Until then, it will continue to operate independently under current management. After completion, the shares would leave both exchanges, and Qiagen would become a privately held company.