Grant of Share Options

RNS Number : 2039J

EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC

09 June 2014

 



9 June 2014

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

("EKF", the "Company")

Grant of share options

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM listed point-of-care, central laboratory and molecular diagnostics business, announces it has granted an option to acquire 1,300,000 ordinary shares of one penny each in the Company to Dr Tito Bacarese-Hamilton, the newly appointed Chief Technology Officer, at the time of his appointment. The option has been granted under the Company's Unapproved Share Option Plan.

The exercise price of the options is 35 pence per share and can be exercised at any time from 30 May 2017 onwards.

A further two tranches of 1,300,000 EKF share options will be granted to Dr Bacarese-Hamilton, one on the first anniversary of his appointment and the other on the second anniversary. These options will have an exercise price equivalent to the share price of the EKF shares on the day of grant and on the premise that certain, to be agreed, pre-conditions have been satisfied.

Dr Bacarese-Hamilton currently holds 106,429 shares in the Company.

There are now a total of 27,851,276 options over ordinary shares granted, representing approximately 6.54 per cent. of the Company's current issued share capital. 

Enquiries:

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc	Tel: [phone]
David Evans, Executive Chairman	Mob: [phone]
Julian Baines, CEO	Mob: [phone]
Paul Foulger, CFO	Mob: [phone]
Canaccord Genuity Limited Nominated Adviser/Corporate Broking	Tel: [phone]
Lucy Tilley /Julian Feneley /Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor /Chris Connors
Walbrook PR Limited	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul McManus	Mob: [phone]
Paul Cornelius	Mob: [phone]

About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc - www.ekfdiagnostics.com

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc was formed in July 2010 following the acquisition of EKF-diagnostic GmbH for €14.32m and refocused its strategy to one of building a substantial point of care diagnostics business. As part of this strategy, the Group has integrated three further acquisitions, Quotient Diagnostics Limited (acquired in September 2010), Argutus Medical Limited (acquired in December 2010) and Stanbio Laboratory L.P. (acquired in June 2011). In 2013 EKF established a new subsidiary, EKF Molecular Diagnostics Ltd, to focus on molecular and companion diagnostics and acquired 360 Genomics Ltd, a business that owns diagnostics technologies for cancer gene detection.

The Company, with its head office in Cardiff and operations in London, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ireland and the US, is a leading diagnostics business, focussing on the development, production and distribution of chemical reagents and analysers for the testing of Glucose, Lactate, Haemoglobin, Haematocrit and HbA1c.

In March 2011 EKF entered into a distribution agreement with Alere Inc ("Alere"), a global diagnostics company, under which Alere was appointed the exclusive distributor of EKF's CLIA waived Hemo Control device and cuvettes in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. The device is distributed in the US under the name HemoPoint H2. 

In March 2014, EKF acquired Separation Technology, Inc., a Florida based manufacturer of in vitro diagnostics devices for the haematology testing market. In April 2014, EKF completed the acquisitions of Selah Genomics Inc., a US based developer of molecular diagnostics for personalised medicine and DiaSpect Medical AB., a Swedish based manufacturer of point-of-care haemoglobin analysers.

 

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