DxS spent £250,000 exploring float
MANCHESTER diagnostics specialist DxS spent nearly £250,000 exploring a stock market flotation before it was sold to the Dutch group Qiagen.
New accounts for the 12 months to June, 2009, show the business incurred an exceptional cost of £249,632 associated with an aborted initial public offering.
Until September a syndicate of venture capital investors, led by NVM Private Equity, controlled the business and were seeking an exit either through a floation or a sale.
They settled on the latter option, selling for £80m to Qiagen, which is listed on the Nasdaq market in the US. The deal gave NVM a return of 13 times its original investment.
The accounts show how DxS, which specialises in kits that make it easier for doctors to prescribe the most effective treatments for various forms of
cancer, more than trebled turnover during the year to £11.1m and recorded a sustantial hike in pre-tax profits from £386,000 to £2.1m.
DxS was launched by two AstraZeneca scientists, Dr Stephen Little and Dr David Whitcombe. Employing around 75 staff has its own manufacturing facility in Manchester, produces around 50,000 testing kits a year. That figure is expected to double this year.
