Life Technologies to buy stake in LabIndia

US-based Life Technologies, the maker of instruments and reagents used in biotech research and diagnosis, is buying a part of its local distributor LabIndia for an undisclosed amount, a top company executive said. The deal will allow Life Technologies to offer complete and complementary products directly to its customers in India, Mark Smedley, head of the Asia Pacific region for Life Technologies, told ET. The two companies signed an agreement for the deal on Monday.

Around 100 employees of LabIndia will join Life Technologies, doubling its headcount in India. Mr Smedley declined to share financial details of the deal, but projected the company’s India revenue to touch $50 million by December 2012.

Life Technologies is routing the transaction through Invitrogen BioServices India, its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary that sells reagents to hospitals, drugmakers, clinical research organisations and government institutes, among others. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of next month.

The $3.3-billion Life Technologies, which employs around 9,000 people globally, was formed with the acquisition of Applied Biosystems Group by Invitrogen Corporation in 2008, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.7 billion. The acquisition in India is part of its strategy to integrate its operations globally. “India was the last piece in Asia,” Mr Smedley said.

In India, Invitrogen BioServices mainly sells reagents while Gurgaon-based LabIndia has been distributing Applied Biosystems’ products in India since 1994. According to industry estimates, LabIndia’s business that is being acquired by Life Technologies has annual sales of over $20 million.

The market for such reagents and kits in India is growing at double-digit rate, making it one of the fastest growing regions in Asia Pacific. Mr Smedley said the company has been acquiring 4-5 companies a year globally and will continue to look for acquisition opportunity to grow its business in India.