Samsung Biologics acquires Swiss Polypeptide Group for US$1.8 billion all-cash
South Korea's Samsung Biologics announced on Monday that it has made an all-cash acquisition offer of approximately US$1.8 billion to Swiss peer Polypeptide Group to expand its presence in the global biomanufacturing field. This is Samsung Biologics’ largest cross-border M&A transaction to date. According to the terms of the agreement, Samsung Biologics will acquire all issued shares of Polypeptide Group at a price of approximately 130 Swiss francs per share, a premium of approximately 35% to the latter’s closing price last Friday. Polypeptide Group's board of directors has unanimously recommended shareholders to accept the offer, and the founding family, which holds about 42% of the shares, has also committed to selling its shares. Polypeptide Group was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Switzerland. It is the world's leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for peptide drugs. It has production bases in Europe and the United States. Its annual revenue in 2025 will be approximately 520 million Swiss francs. The company focuses on the customized synthesis and commercial production of peptide drugs, and its customers include many large pharmaceutical companies around the world. Samsung Biologics said the acquisition will significantly enhance the company's production capabilities in the field of peptide drugs and further improve its global supply chain network. Samsung Biologics currently has three factories located in Incheon, South Korea, with a total production capacity of 364,000 liters. It is one of the world's largest biopharmaceutical CDMOs. Through this transaction, Samsung Biologics will acquire production facilities in Europe and the United States for the first time, helping to spread geopolitical risks and stay close to customer markets. In recent years, the market demand for peptide drugs has grown rapidly. The weight loss drug Wegovy, GLP-1 drugs such as the diabetes drug Mounjaro belong to the category of peptide drugs, and global sales have exceeded tens of billions of dollars. Analysts at Credit Suisse pointed out that Samsung Biologics had previously focused on the fields of antibody drugs and cell gene therapy, and the acquisition of Polypeptide Group will help it enter the high-growth polypeptide CDMO track. However, the transaction still needs to be approved by antitrust regulators in South Korea, Switzerland, and many European and American countries. The European Commission has recently increased its scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions in the biopharmaceutical sector, and some industry insiders are worried that this transaction may face antitrust resistance. Samsung Biologics said it expects the transaction to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2026. Boosted by news of the acquisition, Polypeptide Group's share price soared more than 33% on the Swiss Exchange on Monday, and Samsung Biologics' share price rose about 2% in the Korean market.