NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Techne today announced that it has acquired life science research reagents maker Tocris Holdings and its subsidiaries for £75 million ($124 million) in cash.
Bristol, UK-based Tocris makes reagents that are used in a wide variety of research areas, such as angiogenesis, cell metabolism, signal transduction, stem cells, as well as in pharmacological studies of ion channels, nuclear receptors, transporter molecules, and enzymes. Its offerings will be combined with those of Techne's R&D Systems subsidiary, which provides purified cytokines, antibodies, and assay kits that are sold to biomedical researchers and clinical research labs.
Tocris had 2010 revenues of £11.7 million and EBITDA of £7.4 million. Techne expects the acquisition to add around $3.5 million to its fourth-quarter 2011 sales and said that it is expected to be slightly dilutive to its fourth-quarter 2011 and fiscal-year 2012 net earnings.
Tocris will continue its product development, marketing, and sales activities from Bristol and will coordinate with R&D Systems and its re3lated European and Chinese entities to expand product distribution worldwide.