BioWorld International Correspondent

DUBLIN, Ireland - Trinity Biotech plc is raising gross proceeds of approximately $25 million from a public offering of shares with U.S. and European institutional investors, combined with a share purchase by CEO Ronan O'Caoimh.

The Bray, Ireland-based company gained commitments from selected institutional investors to purchase 2.675 million American depositary shares (ADs), priced at $8.60 each, which represents a discount of 4.5 percent to the company's closing share price on Nasdaq on April 5, immediately prior to the disclosure of the transaction.

O'Caoimh is acquiring 223,460 ADs at $8.95 each, which is equivalent to the full closing share price on the same date. The combined transaction will yield approximately $24 million net of expenses.

The diagnostics company said it will use the cash for general corporate purposes and business development, including the acquisition of companies, products and technologies that are complementary to its current business mix.

"We obviously have particular plans in mind for it, which I don't want to go into now," Chief Financial Officer Rory Nealon told BioWorld International.

Trinity Biotech, a well-known acquirer of smaller companies, always has potential purchases in mind, Nealon said. Any deals it is likely to do in the short term would involve targets that had "a global angle" and that were inside its present areas of focus, which include infectious disease, coagulation, clinical chemistry and point-of-care diagnostics.

The company recently has invested in building up a direct sales force in the U.S., Germany and the UK. Its sales infrastructure in the former two countries, in particular, has capacity for additional volume. "If we could pump more product through that existing cost base, it would make us a lot more profitable," Nealon said.

The company also is hoping to gain approval for an over-the-counter home test version of its UniGold HIV test. Discussions between it - and other companies - and the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee are ongoing. "There's basically a debate going on about what the protocols of the trials should be," Nealon said.

The company ended 2005 with $9.9 million in cash and equivalents, plus a further $9 million in restricted cash that had been set aside to fund deferred considerations from previous acquisitions and convertible debt. It has made deferred payments of $3.6 million since then. Its total debt position is approximately $14 million. It reported net income of $5.1 million - on sales of $98.6 million - in 2005, while generating $9.2 million in cash from its operations.

Trinity Biotech is in a second tier of diagnostics companies, outside of the top 10 that own about 80 percent of the market, Nealon said.

"It's very fragmented when you get below us," he said. That's where its potential acquisitions lie.

Roth Capital Partners LLC, of Newport Beach, Calif., acted as lead placement agent for the transaction, while J&E Davy, of Dublin, Ireland, a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland Group, acted as co-placement agent.