Spectris buys X-ray technology for €150m

Spectris, the electronic instruments maker formerly known as Fairey, yesterday unveiled a €150m (£97m) deal to buy Philips Analytical, an X-ray technologies business, from the electronics giant Philips.

The company is financing £40m of the deal by placing 11.2 million shares with institutional investors at 359p each and is paying the balance from existing resources. Shares in the company closed down 3.3 per cent, or 12.5p, at 363.5p.

"This acquisition is in line with our strategy. Philips Analytical's market-leading X-ray-based technologies complement our existing instrumentation businesses," said Hans Nilsson, chief executive.

Philips Analytical, which employs 850 staff and which will be renamed PANalytical, provides analytical X-ray systems to the laboratory sector and to industrial process control.

The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in September, is forecast to be earnings enhancing in the current year. It will boost Spectris' total debt to about £195m, Merrill Lynch analysts said.

In 2001, Philips Analytical recorded earnings, before interest and tax, of €18.4m on sales of €148.5m.