Harvard Bioscience, Inc. announced it had completed the purchase of KD Scientific, Inc. The terms of the sale are $6.65 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments. KD Scientific designs, manufactures and sells a range of quality fluidics equipment used by research laboratory markets worldwide.
Mark Norige, COO of HBIO's operating company, Harvard Apparatus, comments, "This acquisition strengthens our core fluidics products with the addition of the recognized KD Scientific brand and complementary technology. Today most of this business is sold through major scientific products distributors and we look to build on these established relationships around the world. Going forward we expect to expand the number of product offered through this channel. We will continue to operate KD Scientific as a separate business operating from our Holliston, Massachusetts facility. The purchase price was paid out of cash balances and a draw down under our revolving credit facility"
David Green, president of Harvard Bioscience, commented, "This is another example of a "tuck-under" acquisition which fits our strategy of owning strong franchises in niches within the tools for drug discovery market. We expect this acquisition will add approximately $3m in revenues in 2004 and we expect it will be immediately accretive to our pro-forma earnings per share. Because of the timing, the impact on first quarter results is expected to be minimal. While this does not change the guidance for revenues or pro-forma earnings per share we issued yesterday it does give us somewhat increased confidence in achieving our growth objectives."