Amersham pays pounds 55m for link with Sumitomo
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.AMERSHAM International, the health sciences group, is paying 8.52bn yen ( pounds 55m) for a 20 per cent stake in Nihon Medi & Physics, a Japanese radio-pharmaceutical manufacturer owned by the Sumitomo group, writes Gail Counsell.
The purchase is intended to lead to a full joint venture in the Japanese market between Sumitomo and Amersham within a few years.
As part of the deal, Amersham has the right to buy a further 30 per cent of NMP within the next two to five years. At that point Amersham would fully integrate its Japanese business with that of NMP.
NMP and Amersham each have about 16 per cent of the world pounds 700m-a-year nuclear medicine market. Three other groups share the bulk of the remaining market.
But Amersham is under-represented in Japan, with only 8 per cent of the market. The joint venture would take about 60 per cent of the Japanese market.
Bill Castell, Amersham's chief executive, said: 'We wanted to be the market leader in Japan, but unless we really had to we didn't want to waste our management time and money duplicating existing resources.'
The deal will give Amersham a manufacturing presence, vital because of the increasingly short life- span of the radioactive isotopes used in its products.
It also plans to collaborate with NMP in joint research and development, where its Japanese partner boasts strengths in short-lived isotopes and new tagging agents.
The deal will be funded by yen borrowings. Amersham said the final price for the additional stake had still to be negotiated, but would not exceed Y9.78bn.
The deal was seen as a good one for Amersham and the shares rose 15p to 941p.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments