Gooch & Housego PLC has announced a definitive agreement to acquire the business and assets of General Optics from GSI Group for US$21 million. The sale is expected to close within 60 days, pending regulatory approval.
General Optics is a volume manufacturer of ultra-high quality optical components and coatings to the aerospace and defence sector. The company also serves the telecommunications, semiconductor, metrology, biomedical and research markets, and is a supplier of ring laser gyroscope (RLG) mirrors and frames to manufacturers of inertial navigation systems.
"The acquisition of General Optics is the latest step in delivering our strategic objectives of gaining greater presence in key target markets and in securing a leading or dominant position in the fields in which we operate," said Gareth Jones, CEO of Gooch & Housego.
General Optics was founded in 1974 and was acquired by GSI Group Inc. in 2000. It operates from manufacturing facilities located in Moorpark, CA, where it employs 87 people.
For the 12 months ended December 31, 2007, General Optics had revenues of US$11.7 million.
This transaction is a substantial transaction under Rule 12 of the AIM Rules for Companies (the "AIM Rules").
This announcement is made in accordance with Rule 12 and Schedule 4 of the AIM Rules.
About Gooch & Housego PLC
Gooch & Housego is a manufacturer of acousto-optic and electro-optic devices, precision optical components, crystals, optical instruments and imaging systems. Based in Ilminster, UK, it has operations in the UK, USA and Germany. In several of its activities Gooch & Housego is considered a world leader. The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade was conferred upon the UK business in 2006.
About General Optics
General Optics operates from facilities in Moorpark, California, totalling 52,000 square feet. In addition to the core RLG component business General Optics applies its super-polishing and thin-film coating capabilities to a wide range of optical materials for use in an even broader range of applications. The manufacturing operations are supported by extensive metrology capabilities capable of measuring, for example, the "roughness" of surfaces down to sub-Angstrom level. General Optics owns four patents in the fields of optical fabrication and optical circuits.