Acquisition of Analytical Spectral Devices

Spectris plc (“Spectris” or the “Company”), the productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls company, recently announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire ANALYTICAL SPECTRAL DEVICES (“ASD”), manufacturer of Near-Infrared (NIR) instrumentation solutions and applications expertise for materials measurement and research, for a debt and cash-free net consideration of $14 million (approximately £8.8 million). The consideration will be met from existing cash and bank facilities and is subject to routine balance sheet adjustments. Spectris expects the acquisition to complete before the end of the year upon ASD shareholders’ approval.

In addition, a contingent consideration of up to $19 million (£11.9 million) may become payable to the sellers, based on achieving growth in sales targets for the 36-month period ending 31 December 2015.

The acquisition of ASD is in line with Spectris’ established strategy of growing and strengthening its businesses via acquisition of complementary businesses. ASD will become part of the Materials Analysis segment and will be integrated with PANalytical (Netherlands).

Jim Webster, Spectris’ Business Group Director, commented: “ASD’s successful NIR solutions for the Remote Sensing, Mining and other Industrial markets complement and extend PANalytical’s offering towards scientific and industrial customers and will add a new contiguous product line with portable, handheld, benchtop and online products. Furthermore, the acquisition of ASD will provide strong synergies in the combination of both companies’ technologies, customer support capabilities and distribution channels.”