The Story
On October 1, 2026, Fresenius announced it had acquired the remaining 45% of mAbxience, the Spanish biosimilars specialist it has controlled since 2022, for up to €750 million in cash. The deal was signed and completed on September 30 with no regulatory approvals required. About €50 million of that price is contingent on site approvals.
This is not a cold start. Fresenius bought a 55% majority stake in August 2022 and has consolidated mAbxience ever since. Over those four years the partnership hit development, manufacturing, technology-transfer, and regulatory milestones. In 2025, mAbxience generated more than €320 million in revenue and an EBITDA margin that was accretive to Fresenius Kabi overall. It now has four products on the market, eight candidates in development, three multiproduct plants in Spain and Latin America, and more than 1,300 employees.
CEO Michael Sen framed the sequence plainly: the first stake bought access while managing risk; the market and the asset then performed; Fresenius now has the balance-sheet strength to take the rest. Full ownership sits inside Fresenius Kabi’s Biopharma unit and covers the chain from research through commercialization. Funding came from available liquidity and operating cash flow—no new financing. Leverage is expected to rise by roughly 20 basis points and stay toward the low end of Fresenius’s 2.5x–3.0x corridor. Under IFRS, buying a non-controlling interest is an equity transaction (no goodwill). Management says the deal is immediately accretive to Group core EPS and leaves 2026 guidance unchanged.
The strategic clock matters. Fresenius cites a large wave of biologics losing exclusivity and a biosimilars market it expects to grow about sixfold by 2035 to more than €180 billion. Owning 100% means Fresenius keeps the full economic benefit and can decide capacity, pipeline picks, and licensing without a partner’s claim on the upside.
The Lesson
The clean MBA move is not “always buy 100% on day one.” It is stage the ownership so you pay for certainty only after the thesis has evidence.
A majority stake is a real option with operating control. You learn whether the platform works—pipeline, plants, partners, margins—while your downside is capped at the first check. When the option pays off and the external window opens (here, LOE-driven biosimilar demand), exercising the rest converts shared upside into wholly owned cash flows. Fresenius waited until mAbxience had delivered milestones and until the group could fund the buyout from cash without blowing its leverage targets. That is capital allocation as sequencing, not as a single heroic bet.
Contrast that with buying the whole company before you know the integration or the market. You pay full price for uncertainty. Or with staying at 55% forever: you subsidize a platform whose best years then leak to minority holders. The discipline is knowing which phase you are in—test, prove, or own—and matching the check size to the evidence.
How to Use It
Write the staged path before the first close. If you are entering a joint venture, minority investment, or majority-with-put, define up front what “prove it” looks like: revenue, margin, regulatory wins, or customer retention. Fresenius’s milestones were public enough that the second check reads as earned, not impulsive.
Price the second check against the window, not just the asset. Fresenius timed full ownership against biologics losing exclusivity. Ask: what external deadline makes 100% ownership worth more than 55%? If nothing is changing externally, you may not need to buy the rest yet.
Check funding before you celebrate the thesis. The company funded from cash flow and kept leverage inside its corridor. A proven platform that requires emergency leverage to finish owning is a different decision. Run the second check through the same capital rules as the first.
Keep operators when you buy control. mAbxience’s CEO stays and reports into Fresenius Biopharma. Buying the rest is about economic ownership and decision rights, not automatically replacing the team that made the thesis work.
Sources
Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, “Fresenius acquires remaining 45% of mAbxience for up to €750 million, taking full ownership of its biosimilars platform,” press release (PDF), October 1, 2026. https://www.fresenius.com/sites/default/files/2026-10/20261001_fse_pressrelease_mabxience.pdf
Fresenius, acquisition announcement page, October 1, 2026. https://www.fresenius.com/acquisitionmAbxience
mAbxience / PR Newswire, “Fresenius completes acquisition of mAbxience, creating a stronger platform for future portfolio expansion,” October 1, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fresenius-completes-acquisition-of-mabxience-creating-a-stronger-platform-for-future-portfolio-expansion-302895070.html
Investors in Healthcare, “Spain: Fresenius acquires remaining 45% of mAbxience for up to €750m,” October 1, 2026. https://www.investorsinhealthcare.com/articles/category/news/spain-fresenius-acquires-remaining-45-of-mabxience-for-up-to-e750m/