Solventum to Sell Purification Business for $4.1B
It’s been almost a year since Solventum spun off as a separate business from 3M. Now, Solventum is orchestrating a spinoff of its own.
On Tuesday, Solventum announced that it has lined up a deal to sell its purification and filtration business to Massachusetts-based medical equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for $4.1 billion.
Solventum expects to net about $3.4 billion from the sale, and plans to use the proceeds to pay down debt, the company said in a news release. Just how much debt does Solventum have? In its third quarter that ended Sept. 30, the company reported long-term debt of over $7.8 billion.
For that same quarter, Solventum reported net sales of $2.082 billion and net income of $112 million. The company’s purification and filtration unit, meanwhile, pulled in $721 million that quarter.
In the news release, Solventum CEO Bryan Hanson said that selling the business unit is part of a “transformation plan and follows a thorough analysis of the value and strategic alignment of our businesses.”
“This transaction will enhance our strategic focus and key metrics while reducing leverage and significantly strengthening our balance sheet,” Hanson said. “It also enables us to invest in the innovation, programs and talent we need to execute our mission and deliver shareholder value.”
In a separate announcement, Thermo Fisher chairman, president, and CEO Marc Casper described Solventum’s filtration and purification unit as “an outstanding strategic fit” for his company. The Thermo Fisher statement said that the Solventum business unit has about 2,500 employees. What the deal will mean for Solventum’s employees isn’t yet clear.
Pending regulatory approval, the sale is slated to close by the end of 2025, according to Solventum.
In late October, Minnesota state officials announced that Solventum will build a $209 million research-and-development facility in Eagan. The state is providing $13 million toward that effort.
