STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 6, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Biotage has acquired Separtis Holding AG, the Swiss, German and Austrian distributor for many Biotage products, formerly the Argonaut Technologies consumable product range. Under the terms of the agreement, Biotage will retain all current Separtis employees, assume the leased facilities in Grenzach-Wyhlen, and own all assets of Separtis, which is based in Grellingen, Switzerland with operating legal entities within Switzerland and Germany. The turnover of the company in 2004 was 1.6M (14.6M SEK) Euros and all revenues were comprised of Biotage-produced products. It is expected the acquisition should result in an annual revenue increase of 7.5M SEK.
"It has always been within our plans to move from distributors to direct sales and service within our key European markets. This acquisition, in combination with other recent distributor changes in the EU, allows us to now service our critical markets directly while raising our operating margins," stated Jeff Bork, CEO of Biotage AB.
Dr. Reinhard Kupferschmidt, the current senior sales manager and technical director, will become the head of all Biotage business activities in Central and Eastern Europe. The existing Separtis business activities in Genzach-Wyhlen will continue as well.
"This substantially completes a crucial part of the Argonaut integration. For Biotage, it delivers critical skills and strong customer relationships in a vital EU region while providing the management talent necessary for our long term success," according to Dave Patteson, President of Biotage's Discovery Chemistry Business.
About Biotage
Biotage is a global company active in life science research with strong technologies, a broad range of operations and a long-term view of the market. The company offers solutions, knowledge and experience in the areas of genetic analysis and medicinal chemistry. Customers include the world's top 30 pharmaceutical companies, 20 largest biotech companies and leading academic institutes. The company is headquartered in Uppsala and has offices in the U.S., Japan, U.K. and several other European countries. Biotage has approx. 340 employees and had pro-forma sales of approx. 500 MSEK in 2004. Biotage is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. Website: www.biotage.com
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "intend," and "should," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Biotage's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, Biotage notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the microwave synthesis and flash purification in the drug discovery market, DNA sequencing and genomics market, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for Biotage's products (including seasonal fluctuations), difficulties in successfully adapting the Company's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, and the Company's ability to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors.
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