Baker McKenzie Successfully Advises Olink in Merger Control Proceedings Before the Federal Cartel Office

Baker McKenzie advised Olink Holding AB (publ), Sweden, on the sale of the life sciences group Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, USA, on merger control law. The German Federal Cartel Office approved the acquisition.

The international transaction resulted in merger control applications being filed in the US, UK, Germany and Iceland. From a legal perspective, the case is of great importance, as it was filed in Germany on the basis of a – still relatively new – transaction value threshold and required an in-depth analysis (Phase II). The agreed purchase price is approximately EUR 2.8 billion.

“Thanks to the close international cooperation within our Antitrust practice group, we were able to support the client in this project – in line with our firm’s ‘one-stop shop’ approach – almost from a single source,” commented Jan Kresken, who led the merger control proceedings in Germany at Baker McKenzie.

Olink is a global biotechnology company headquartered in Sweden. It provides analytical systems and services for advanced proteomic discovery and development, enabling leading academic and biopharmaceutical researchers to gain greater insight into disease evolution and thus develop better and more targeted therapies.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a global leader in the scientific services sector with annual revenues exceeding $40 billion. Its core business includes the development and production of high-resolution mass spectrometers (High Resolution Accurate Mass – HRAM), which are also used for protein analysis and other applications.

Baker McKenzie’s antitrust team regularly advises on complex antitrust proceedings before the European Commission and the Federal Cartel Office (e.g. Carlsberg in the so-called beer cartel proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice and the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf (chaired by Dr. Anika Schürmann), Mercedes-Benz in connection with cartel allegations regarding the purchase of steel (chaired by Dr. Nicolas Kredel) and RUAG International in cartel proceedings before the European Commission (chaired by Dr. Nicolas Kredel and Dr. Anika Schürmann).

In addition, Dr. Nicolas Kredel’s team successfully advises in complex Phase II merger control proceedings before the European Commission and the Federal Cartel Office (e.g. Fluidra in the case of the takeover of the Meranus Group, Sika in numerous merger control proceedings related to the successful takeover of the MBCC Group and Deutsche Glasfaser in relation to the joint venture in the fiber optic sector between Deutsche Telekom and EWE) as well as in proceedings under the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. The team also advises numerous national and international companies on global antitrust compliance regimes and antitrust damages proceedings.

With more than 300 antitrust professionals in over 40 countries, Baker McKenzie’s international antitrust and competition practice group is one of the largest antitrust teams in the world and has consistently been ranked at the top of the most important global antitrust practice rankings.