LabCorp agrees to acquire Covance Food Solutions for $670m

Global life sciences company LabCorp has entered a definitive agreement with Eurofins Scientific to sell its Covance Food Solutions business for $670m.

Eurofins is a global group of laboratories, which has been active in food, environment, and pharmaceutical product testing.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year after obtaining regulatory approvals.

Eurofins CEO Gilles Martin said: “Covance has a strong track record of success offering tailored testing and product design solutions for the food industry and enjoys outstanding credibility with its customers.

“This, combined with complementary service offerings and geographic footprint, made it an ideal fit with Eurofins’ existing offerings and supports our mission to deliver the most innovative and highest quality food testing and development services in the world.”

Through its facilities in the US, Singapore and the UK, Covance has been providing product design and product integrity services for the global food supply chain.

LabCorp chairman and chief executive officer David King said: “Covance is a great business and has benefitted substantially from its ownership by Covance and then LabCorp.

“Over the three years LabCorp has owned Covance, it has become clear that the greatest opportunities for us to create lasting value come from the core lab business, the Contract Research Organization (CRO), and the enterprise-wide combination that is beyond lab and beyond CRO.

“The sale of Covance to Eurofins allows us to focus on our core mission of improving health and improving lives, and at the same time better positions Covance to serve the global food supply industry.”

LabCorp acquired Covance in 2015 and since then the food solutions company has further improved its technical capabilities and has offered its solutions to the global food, beverage, dietary supplement and agricultural industries.