BELFAST-BASED Andor Technology has received an approach from Carraig Capital, an investment group controlled by Cavan-based Kingspan founder Eugene Murtagh and his son Paul.
In a statement released to the London Stock Exchange yesterday, Andor said Carraig had made a "potential offer" of 76 pence a share in cash for the business. This values Andor at around £21 million.
Andor is already the subject of a recommended bid from a management-led group called Thorndale Trading Ltd, which offered 73 pence a share for the business in July.
Carraig has been joined in its bid by former Andor chief executive Dr Hugh Cormican, who stepped down from the Belfast company's board last year.
Dr Cormican now runs a US-based imaging technology company called Bioptics. Between them, they control about 12.4 per cent of Andor's shares.
Eugene Murtagh is the founder of successful Cavan-based building materials group Kingspan. Carraig has a number of investments in leisure and property.
Andor yesterday surprised the market by producing a better-than-expected trading update for the year to the end of September. It said strong trading in the second half of the year would result in a pre-tax profit of £2 million on revenues of not less than £24.5 million.
"The current order book is at a record level and looking forward to 2009 we see continued strong performance and further opportunities for growth," the company added.
It said the weakening of sterling against the dollar over the past few weeks had had a "material impact" on profitability. More than 35 per cent of its revenues is dollar denominated.
Based in west Belfast, Andor develops and manufactures high specification camera equipment which is used for scientific imaging and spectroscopy research.
Founded in 1989, the company began life as a spin-out from Queen's University, and has been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) in London since 2004. Last month Andor's independent directors recommended the sale of the company to Thorndale - a company made up of senior Andor executives and private equity investors.
An extraordinary general meeting had been scheduled for September 24th to allow shareholders to vote on the offer. It is not clear whether this will now go ahead.
Following the upbeat trading statement from Andor, its independent directors informed shareholders that they were now reconsidering their decision to recommend the Thorndale offer.
"There is no certainty that a formal offer from Carraig will be forthcoming or as to the terms on which any such offer would be made," a statement from Andor's independent directors said.
Andor's shares closed yesterday up 6 per cent at 74.5 pence.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)