Nasdaq-listed Trinity Biotech has $43 million (€34 million) in cash available for future acquisitions and it hopes to find suitable opportunities soon, a statement said yesterday.
The Irish company, which has seen its shares rise rapidly since receiving US approval just after Christmas for its HIV test, said yesterday it had raised $22.5 million via a private placement and now had $43 million in cash to fund acquisitions.
The funds would allow Trinity to "target larger acquisitions than previously", said chief executive Mr Ronan O'Caoimh. "We intend quickly turning this capability into accretive earnings per share acquisitions," he said.
The private placing involves several unnamed institutional investors, which are taking up 5.2 million ordinary shares at $4.25 per share. The investors will also receive five-year warrants to purchase another million shares at an exercise price of $5.25 per share. This will represent a 24 per cent premium to the placement price.
The investors are also entitled to buy up to 2.6 million ordinary shares at $4.25 per share for a period of up to 30 days after the closing of the transaction. No additional warrants would be issued in relation to the exercise of this right, the company said.
Trinity Biotech develops, acquires and manufactures more than 500 drugs. Its shares were boosted significantly in recent days by the Food and Drug Administration's approval of its breakthrough 10-minute HIV test. Some analysts have predicted that revenues from the Uni-Gold Recombigen test could be as high as $30 million in the first year.
Trinity has submitted the test to EU regulatory authorities and expects to announce a launch date within months. It has also agreed to supply HIV tests to the US government under Washington's $50 million African Aids programme.
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