Belfast, Northern Ireland--Andor Technology plc has acquired the trade and assets of Photonic Instruments Inc and Imaginative Optics Inc. ("Photonic") for US$ 5.0 million (GBP £3.25 million) in cash and the issue of 156,627 ordinary shares of 2p each in the capital of Andor ("Andor Shares").
Andor develops and manufactures high performance digital cameras for academic, industrial and government applications globally. In a press release the company said that an application will shortly be made to the London Stock Exchange and admission to trading in the new Andor Shares is scheduled to commence on 21 April 2010. Further consideration in the form of cash and Andor Shares of a maximum aggregate value of US$ 1.95 million (GBP £1.27 million) may be payable by Andor under an earn-out provision in the event that Photonic exceeds an agreed order intake target as well as certain product development goals in the 18 months following completion. Andor expects to receive approximately US$0.5 million (GBP £0.3 million) of net assets as part of the acquisition.
Photonic (Saint Charles, IL and Beverly, MA) develops, manufactures and supplies laser and lamp based illumination and ablation systems. Its Micropoint and patented Mosaic products are reportedly market leaders in fluorescence imaging and laser ablation for confocal and wide field microscopy. The business currently operates from two locations in the US however Andor says that manufacturing will transition to its facility in Belfast within the first year and sales will be managed from Andor’s existing US hub in Connecticut. The existing management and founders will remain with the business following completion. In the year ended 31 December 2009, Photonic reported revenue of US$ 3.0 million and operating profit of US$ 0.8 million.
Commenting on the acquisition of Photonic, Conor Walsh, Chief Executive of Andor, said in a press release: "Photonic has a strong market position, patented technology, high margin performance and good cash generation. It will be a perfect fit in our systems division and I am delighted to welcome the team to Andor."
Robert Nowak, co-founder of Photonic said: "We are delighted to be joining Andor. We believe that the combined offering of Andor’s systems products, Bitplane’s software and Photonic’s ablation and patented illumination products strengthens the position of each of the businesses and offers the customer a compelling proposition."
Last December Andor completed its acquisitioin of Bitplane A G (Zurich, Switzerland) a world leader in 3D and 4D image analysis software.
Andrew DeSimone, co-founder of Photonic said: "We are also excited about developing the next stage of the technology together with the engineering team at Andor and look forward to the successful delivery of the product roadmap.”
For further information see Andor Technology plc
Posted by Steve Anderson