Axis-Shield bid now unconditional

SCOTLAND moved a step closer to losing another listed company yesterday when US life sciences giant Alere declared that its takeover bid for Axis-Shield had turned unconditional.

Investors holding 20.5 per cent of the voting rights in the Dundee-based medical testing kit maker had already accepted the Massachusetts-based firm’s 470p-a-share offer, which values the firm at about £235 million.

Coupled with the 29.9 per cent stake in Axis-Shield built up by Alere, the figure takes the US firm’s shareholding above the 50 per cent threshold for the bid to be declared unconditional.

Alere reiterated its plan to delist Axis-Shield once it reaches the 75 per cent acceptance threshold and to force through a compulsory purchase when it passes the 90 per cent mark.

The US firm approached Axis-Shield in June and then made a hostile 460p offer in July.

Axis-Shield’s board recommended an improved 470p bid earlier this month. Before August’s stock market turmoil, analysts had suggested 550p would have been a fairer price.

Axis-Shield yesterday announced that it had signed a deal with New York-based Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics to sell the Scottish company’s rheumatoid arthritis test for a Siemens machine used in laboratories.

The company already has deals in place for the test with Abbott Diagnostics and Bio-Rad.

News of the latest contract comes just a day after Axis-Shield launched a vitamin B12 test for another machine made by Abbott Diagnostics.