20th March 2014

EKF in £60m acquisition

EKF Diagnostics has bought two hi-tech firms which together could be worth more than £60m.

The deals to buy US-based molecular diagnostics developer Selah Genomics and Swedish firm Diaspect Medical follow the acquisition of Florida-based Separation Technology last week.

EKF, which is based in Penarth, today confirmed it has raised £22m through two share placings.

Julian Baines, CEO of EKF said: “These acquisitions provide us with a huge opportunity to establish ourselves as a leading global player in point-of-care haemoglobin testing and to consolidate our position in molecular diagnostics and personalised medicine, an area that we consider to be one of the most exciting areas in diagnostics.

“My Board colleagues and I believe that these acquisitions will deliver an enhanced return to our shareholders and we expect the transactions to be earnings enhancing, both individually and in aggregate, from year one.”

Selah specialises in the detection of molecular biomarkers to diagnose and monitor disease, detect risk, and identify which therapies will work best for individual patients.

DiaSpect’s focus is on developing systems for haemoglobin measurements, which are for use with unaltered whole blood and without the use of reagents.

Global revenue generated from the sales of portable and handheld point of care devices for haemoglobin and haematocrit testing is estimated to be around US$300m per annum.