BTG announces double acquisition and placing of 33m shares

BTG, the specialist healthcare company, has entered into an agreement to buy EKOS Corporation (EKOS), an interventional vascular business, and separately to buy the Targeted Therapies division of Nordion.

Targeted Therapies will be purchased for a total cash consideration of around £133m.

This will be funded in part out of existing cash resources, with the balance being funded the net proceeds of a placing of up to 32.8m new ordinary shares, representing up to 9.99% of BTG's existing issued ordinary share capital.

Shareholders will be required to vote on the purchase, with two major stake holders having already stated their intention to vote in favour of the acquisition in respect of 134.1m shares, representing approximately 40.9% of the issued share capital.

Targeted Therapies is a high-growth, profitable business that is focused on utilising a product known as Therasphere for targeted interventional treatment of liver cancer.

Louise Makin, Chief Executive Officer of BTG, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to build on our existing interventional oncology business and to create a commercial and scientific leader in the sector.

"We believe that the combination will be highly beneficial to both patients and physicians as it brings together expertise that will be applied to the development and use of loco-regional therapies for liver cancer."

EKOS will be purchased on a debt free, cash free, basis for an initial cash consideration of around £120m in addition to as much as £27m in future milestone payments.

EKOS, which is headquartered near Seattle in the US, owns, manufactures and distributes the EkoSonic Endovascular System, a differentiated interventional product used in the treatment of severe blood clots. EkoSonic is cleared for use in the US and EU.

The transaction in line with BTG's strategy of growing its interventional medicine business, as it has significant addressable market opportunity in a growing treatment area and its differentiated technology is protected by granted patents through to 2022, with additional filings to 2030.

Makin added: "There is increasing recognition of the benefits of interventional treatment of severe blood clots. EKOS is a fast-growing and profitable business, and the acquisition provides an exciting opportunity to build on our existing interventional medicine business and to enter an area with a significant addressable market opportunity.

"Furthermore, we see significant revenue benefits from the shared customer base both with our existing interventional medicine and specialty pharmaceuticals field forces and with our planned Varisolve field force."

BTG's share price fell 2.84% to 328.80p by 09:10 Thursday.

NR