Icon to keep its focus on growth

Clinical trials specialist, Icon plc, is likely to continue seeking new acquisitions this year, but chief executive, Mr Peter Gray, said yesterday that it planned to focus its efforts on growing the company organically over the next 12 months.

The Dublin and Nasdaq-listed group is due to publish its second-quarter results today. The company held its annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday.

Speaking to The Irish Times after the meeting, Mr Gray said the group was interested in making new acquisitions. It has made six since 2000, three of them last year.

"We have picked up businesses that add something new to Icon rather than more of the same," he said. "They tend to be opportunistic acquisitions. We will continue to be interested in making acquisitions that will add new services. If opportunities come along for us to make acquisitions, then we will take them."

Icon has a $105 million (€82.1 million) war chest to pay for any new purchases. Last year, the company raised $45 million through a share issue and negotiated a $60 million debt facility with its banks.

Chairman, Mr John Climax, said last year's €21 million purchase of Medeval would be used to develop new markets in the US. The subsidiary specialises in phase one clinical trials, carried out after a new drug has passed all laboratory tests. "Our intention is to grow in this area and use Medeval as a platform to develop phase one capability in the US," he told the meeting.