KKR has completed the £4.7 billion acquisition of Spectris plc.
The deal was agreed in the summer following a bidding war between US private equity companies KKR and Advent.
It has now completed after the court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement was delivered to the Registrar of Companies today. Trading of Spectris shares on the London Stock Exchange’s main market has therefore been suspended.
Spectris CEO Andrew Heath (pictured) will retire at the end of the year, with Andrew Williams set to take over as interim CEO.
The London firm’s board had previously recommended Advent’s £4.4bn offer – which followed several earlier unsuccessful bids – before it was gazumped by KKR.
Spectris, which employs 7,600 people, has two divisions – Spectris Scientific and Spectris Dynamics – with annual sales of £776.7m and £501.7m respectively.
Spectris Scientific, behind advanced measurement techniques for materials analysis, serves the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, primary and advanced materials and advanced research sectors. It is comprised of three companies: Malvern Panalytical, Particle Measuring Systems and Servomex.
Spectris Dynamics, a provider of advanced virtual and physical testing, and high precision sensing solutions, supports the world’s leading automotive, machine manufacturing, aerospace, electronics and advanced research customers through its business HBK.