Today, Sartorius AG (Nachrichten/Aktienkurs) (Nachrichten/Aktienkurs) (FWB:SRT) signed an agreement with the British technology group Smiths (LSE:SMIN) to sell German-based Sartorius Bearing Technology GmbH to this Group. According to the agreement, the Smiths Group (Nachrichten) will retroactively purchase all of the shares in the hydrodynamic bearing company effective September 1, 2007, subject to usual approval procedures, such as antitrust clearance. The purchase price is approximately 20 million euros. Sartorius Bearing Technology GmbH is to be integrated into the John Crane business of Smiths, which focuses on the design and manufacture of seals. John Crane will take on all Sartorius Bearing Technology employees numbering around 100 persons at the Goettingen location. The transaction is expected to be closed within approximately the next six weeks.

“We carefully weighed all options for the future and ultimately chose the best prospects for employees, customers and shareholders,“? said Sartorius Executive Board Chairman and CEO Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg about the transaction. "Our successful hydrodynamic bearings business will be optimally promoted in John Crane and will gain the opportunity to rapidly take the necessary steps for globalization. This would not have been possible in this way for the business as a rather marginal activity at Sartorius.“? As Kreuzburg said further, in defining its portfolio, the Sartorius Group will continue to focus on its two core areas of activity, biotechnology and mechatronics, as well as on its major groups of customers, the biopharmaceutical, chemical and food industries. In both areas, the Group is on track to accelerate sustainable growth. He referred in this context to the acquisitions of Omnimark, Toha Plast and Stedim Biosystems the Sartorius Group recently made, the expansion of R&D, the substantial extension of the plant facility in China as well as to the numerous new R&D and sales and distribution alliances.

For the financial year 2007, Sartorius Bearing Technology GmbH expects to achieve sales revenue of a good 15 million euros along with a double-digit EBIT margin. Hydrodynamic bearings are used by customers from the energy sector and plant and system engineering field predominantly in high-speed applications, such as turbines, compressors and industrial pumps. The company's manufacturing operations for hydrodynamic bearings are based exclusively in Goettingen, Germany. So far, its business has been primarily in Germany and Western Europe. Sartorius spun off its hydrodynamic bearings business in 2005 as a separate company (GmbH). In 2006, the expanding business relocated to an independent facility.