Financings In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Inverness raises funds for more acquisitions: Diagnostics firm will gross about $728 million from the sale of 11.8 million shares of its common stock at $61.49 each, expected to close Nov. 20, the firm announces Nov. 15. Proceeds are tabbed for working capital and "potential acquisitions or other investments, if and when suitable opportunities arise," the company says. Inverness Medical Innovations, which has inked more than a dozen acquisition deals so far this year, recently indicated that it plans to keep up the pace, with the goal of growing annual revenues to $3 billion by 2012 (1"The Gray Sheet" Nov. 5, 2007, p. 16). The Waltham, Mass.-based company notes that it also may use a portion of the anticipated proceeds from the stock offering to complete its pending $37 million acquisition of Australian diagnostics firm Panbio, which was announced Oct. 8 (2"The Gray Sheet" Oct. 15, 2007, In Brief). Underwriters for the stock offering include UBS Investment Bank, Jefferies & Company, Merrill Lynch, Leerink Swann, and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company. Inverness stock trades on the Amex exchange under the symbol "IMA.