Eurofins raises funds to finance potential acquisitions
The firm said the targets represent opportunities over and above the planned acquisition programme of €200m per year to reach revenue of €4bn by 2020.
Money was raised following issuance of 800,000 new shares to institutional investors, at a price of €370 per share.
After strong investor demand, Eurofins’ management increased the offer size from 600,000 to 800,000 new shares to secure greater funding flexibility for a potential acceleration in acquisitions.
The management’s objective is to use the proceeds within the next 12 months.
Eurofins bought Bureau de Wit, a Dutch food testing firm, to reinforce its position in the market and broaden its client base in June.
It also acquired Agro-Analyses, an analytical service provider for the food retail and catering sectors in France and Exova's food, water and pharmaceutical testing business in the UK and Ireland for £18m in May this year.
Dr Gilles Martin, Eurofins CEO, said the success of the equity issuance demonstrates investors’ confidence in ability to deploy capital to create shareholder value.
“I would like to thank our supporters in the capital markets for the trust that they have extended over the years, and continue to give to Eurofins, and reiterate that the board, and the executive management of Eurofins, intend to invest with the same disciplined approach that it has employed in the past, with the objective to create higher earnings per share (EPS) than the dilution impact from the new issuance.”
Eurofins has 25,000 staff in more than 250 laboratories across 39 countries and 130,000 validated analytical methods for evaluating safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products.
