Thermo Fisher to buy diagnostics firm Binding Site for $2.6 billion

(Reuters) - Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc said on Monday it would buy Binding Site Group from European private equity firm Nordic Capital in an all-cash transaction valued at 2.25 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), boosting its specialty diagnostics business.

Birmingham, U.K.-based Binding Site's test helps detect and monitor multiple myeloma, a cancer in a type of white blood cell, and is on track to deliver more than $220 million of revenue in 2022, Thermo Fisher said.

Scientific instruments maker Thermo Fisher's specialty diagnostics portfolio includes equipment for testing allergy and autoimmune diseases and for monitoring transplant-related biomarkers.

Speciality diagnostics business generated revenue of $3.65 billion for the nine months ended Oct. 1, accounting for about 10% of Thermo Fisher's total revenue during the period.

U.S.-based Thermo Fisher expects the transaction to be completed in the first half of 2023 and boost adjusted earnings per share by 7 cents on the first full-year of ownership.

Thermo Fisher had earlier this year bought recombinant proteins maker PeproTech for about $1.85 billion in cash, after spending about $17.4 billion to buy clinical research services provider PPD last year.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Pratik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)