Bayer AG has closed on its previously announced agreement to sell its diabetes care business to Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd., a company which is backed by funds sponsored by the investment firm KKR and the Panasonic Corporation. The total consideration for the transaction is around EUR 1 billion ($1.07 billion). The new stand-alone diabetes care business is named Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

The sale includes the Contour portfolio of blood-glucose-monitoring meters and strips, as well as other products such as Breeze, Elite, and Microletâ„¢ lancing devices. Bayer's diabetes care business accounted for EUR 909 million ($976 million) in sales in 2014.

Bayer AG is proceeding with a strategy to demerge its material sciences business to become a pure-play life sciences company by mid-2016 at the latest, with pharmaceuticals the leading piece. The German chemical conglomerate first announced in September 2014 that it would demerge its material science business and float it as a separate company, now to be called Covestro, leaving the strategic focus of Bayer on its healthcare businesses, which accounted for almost half of the company's revenues in 2014.

Source: Bayer AG