Qiagen Agrees to €46.50-a-Share All-Cash Takeover by EQT, Valuing It at About €10.8 Billion Including Debt

Qiagen (NYSE: QGEN) and EQT Private Equity announced on Oct. 21 an agreement on a recommended, all-cash voluntary public takeover offer of €46.50 per share, hours after Bloomberg reported that EQT was nearing a deal at that price. Reuters put the equity price at about €9.6 billion ($10.78 billion), and Bloomberg later reported the agreed deal at €9.6 billion. Qiagen's own announcement values the company at about €10.8 billion in enterprise value, or $12.1 billion including about $1.1 billion of net debt. The two figures describe the same deal: one is the equity price, the other adds net debt.

The offer is a 40.3% premium to Qiagen's unaffected Xetra close of €33.15 on July 8, the last trading day before reports of private-equity interest, and 46.9% above the three-month volume-weighted average of €31.66. Because the stock had already run up on those reports, the premium to the Oct. 21 Frankfurt close of €42.82 is only 8.6%. Qiagen's U.S.-listed shares rose 0.7% in extended trading, according to Reuters.

The bidder is Crown NL Bidco, controlled by the EQT XI fund, with ADIA and CPP Investments as co-investors and committed equity and debt financing. Qiagen's supervisory and managing boards unanimously recommend the offer, and supervisory board chairman Stephen Rusckowski called going private the best path forward for Qiagen and its shareholders. The offer needs a minimum acceptance of 50% of outstanding shares plus one share, along with merger-control and foreign-investment clearances, and closing is expected in mid-2027. Qiagen suspended its full-year 2026 outlook and reported preliminary third-quarter net sales of $548 million and adjusted diluted EPS of $0.65.

The main watch items are the acceptance level once the offer document clears BaFin, whether any large holder pushes for a higher price after earlier reports that some suitors considered at least $50 per share, and the regulatory timetable. If the offer has not closed within 10 months, Qiagen may pay an interim dividend of up to $0.47 per share.