Avacta Shares Dropped 4.84% After Acquiring Coris Bioconcept

The Avacta Group Plc (LON: AVCT) share price dropped 4.84% after announcing that it had acquired Coris Bioconcept SRL for an upfront cash consideration of £7.4 million, with an additional earnout based on future business performance of up to £3.0 million payable in cash.

The life sciences company noted that it had embraced a growth strategy based on mergers and acquisitions, as evidenced by the acquisition of Laucnh Diagnostics in October 2022, which provided the firm with a well-established route to market in the centralised professional healthcare market, primarily in the UK and France.

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Coris Bioconcept is based in Gembloux, Belgium and was founded in 1996 to develop, manufacture and market rapid diagnostic test kits, mainly lateral flow tests, for use by healthcare professionals. The company is ISO 13485 certified and markets its products in Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania and Africa, with the bulk of sales coming from Europe. 

The company’s unaudited revenues were £4.6 million. Most of the revenue was not related to COVID-19 tests. Gross margins were about 50%, with pretax profits of £0.35 million and a loss-after-tax of £0.02 million. Coris had net assets of £6.0 million. 

Coris employs 35 staff members across various divisions, including production, quality control, sales, administration and regulation. In addition, the company just completed the construction of a new 10,700ft² facility that shall act as its offices, production, and warehouse facility in Gembloux.

The company’s product portfolio includes diagnostic tests for gastro-enteric, respiratory, and blood-borne pathogens (viruses, bacteria and parasites) and for detecting antibiotic resistance markers. Coris also markets a COVID-19 lateral flow test. Hence, Avacta decided to halt the redevelopment of its AffiDX^® SARS-CoV-2 antigen lateral flow test.

Avacta Group plc’s CEO, Dr Alastair Smith, commented: “The acquisition of Coris provides the Group with a broad, professional-use rapid test product portfolio. Complementing the acquisition of Launch Diagnostics last year, the Acquisition represents an important step in establishing a full-spectrum in-vitro diagnostics business covering centralised pathology laboratory diagnostics, as well as decentralised, point-of-care testing solutions outside the hospital setting.”

*This is not investment advice. 

Avacta share price. 

The Avacta share price dropped 4.84% to trade at 103.25p, from Wednesday’s closing price of 108.50p.