Trinity Biotech, the Irish biotechnology company which has had a listing on the Nasdaq market for the past seven years, is likely to take a listing on the Irish stock market in the coming months.
Trinity finance director Mr Jonathan O'Connell confirmed that the group was in discussions with Goodbody Stockbrokers about a listing. He added that while the board had not yet taken a formal decision, it was likely that Trinity would take a secondary listing in Dublin and maintain its primary listing on Nasdaq. At its current price on Nasdaq of $1 1/2 (1.3), Trinity has a market capitalisation of around £25 million (31.7 million).
Mr O'Connell said that a listing in Dublin would be aimed at broadening the group's shareholder base and attracting institutional investors. "We have quite a number of Irish shareholders but they have to deal through Nasdaq, where commissions can be very high," he said.
He said Trinity was likely to be more attractive to Irish investors now than when it floated on Nasdaq in 1992. "Back then there were no biotechnology or high-technology companies on the Irish market, but now there are quite a few, such as Iona." He said a listing in Dublin was likely to be a simple introduction and it was unlikely that any fresh capital would be raised.
Trinity has expanded rapidly through acquisition in the past two years and has nine successive quarters of earnings growth. Full-year results for 1997 showed net profits of $1.2 million with turnover doubling from $7.1 million to $16.8 million. The group's half-year profits to June 1998 more than doubled from $450,208 to $1.1 million with sales in the half-year up from $7.2 million to $11 million. Net cash at the end of June totalled $5 million.
In February 1997, it acquired Clark Laboratories, a manufacturer of diagnostic kits, for $6.2 million. Early last year, Trinity expanded its operations in Dublin when it transferred its manufacturing of products for tackling infectious diseases from Britain to Dublin. In July, it paid $2 million for a product used for testing drug abuse, while in October it paid $4.7 million for the infectious disease diagnostics business of Cambridge Diagnostics Ireland.
