|
Nycomed registers for IPO
|
 |
October 3, 2000: 6:25 a.m. ET
Healthcare firm files with US regulator for AP Biotech IPO on Nasdaq
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Anglo-Norwegian healthcare firm Nycomed Amersham PLC said Tuesday it formally notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it plans to sell shares in its jointly owned life-science unit Amersham Pharmacia Biotech in an initial public offering on Nasdaq.
Nycomed (NAM), the world's leading maker of diagnostic imaging products, said in August it planned to sell 10 percent of the unit, of which it is the majority owner with 55 percent. U.S. drug maker Pharmacia Corp. (PHA: Research, Estimates) holds the remaining 45 percent of AP Biotech, which makes sequencing machines used in mapping the human genome and other research supplies.
Analysts estimate the flotation will value AP Biotech at between $4 billion and $6 billion. The flotation is seen raising funds that AP Biotech could use for a buying spree.
"There are an astonishing number of new companies being built up, many of which are quite small. We feel that consolidation is likely and that the bigger players, like ourselves, will absorb many of the smaller entities," Nycomed Finance Director Giles Kerr was quoted as saying in a Reuters interview.
 Nycomed shares rose 2.1 percent to 668 pence.
The IPO could be delayed until next year because of a backlog of such filings at the SEC, a Nycomed spokeswoman said.
"We don't expect to even get their first set of comments until mid-November," Kerr was quoted as saying.
Nycomed said in August that it would retain management control after the flotation.
In the six months ended June 30, AP Biotech's operating profit before integration costs and goodwill was £29 million, matching the result for the same period a year earlier. First-half sales rose to £280 million from £243 million in 1999, Nycomed said.
Nycomed in August reported a 3.3 percent rise in first-half net profit to £62.6 million ($91 million).
The life-science unit will trade under the name AP Biotech Inc., with the Nasdaq ticker symbol APBI. 
--from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
