ST. LOUIS, May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL) announced today it has acquired all outstanding shares of Vetec Quimica Fina Ltda to strengthen the Company’s position in Latin America. Based in Brazil, Vetec is a leading supplier of high quality specialty chemicals for the academic and industrial markets and provides products that support research, development and manufacturing. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The Company expects the acquisition to be neutral to diluted earnings per share in 2011.

Vetec brings to Sigma-Aldrich more than 3,000 products and more than 30 years of expertise in the technical qualification, purification and packaging of high quality chemicals for laboratory and manufacturing applications. Vetec has built its reputation on superior service and quality and has been ISO certified since 2003. Vetec employs more than 200 employees at its Xerem location, near Rio de Janiero.

Commenting on the acquisition, Eric Green, Vice President and Managing Director, International at Sigma-Aldrich said, “The acquisition of Vetec Quimica is part of Sigma-Aldrich’s strategy to continue building a presence in the emerging markets and to leverage the economies afforded by producing and packaging products where our customers reside. In addition to localizing our supply chain, the combination of Vetec and Sigma-Aldrich allows us to broaden our distribution channel in Brazil and to enhance our ability to tailor our products to match the special requirements of the market.”

Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as “to strengthen,” “allows us,” “to enhance,” “expects,” or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived therefrom. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that the acquisition of Vetec will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management’s expectations regarding the acquisition of Vetec could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company’s ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company’s assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich’s current Form 10-K and Form 10-Q on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company committed to Enabling Science to Improve the Quality of Life. Its chemical and biochemical products and kits are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostic and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 40 countries and has 8,000 employees providing excellent service worldwide. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich Corporation