Shares start trading in SourceBio

Nottingham-based SourceBio International provides laboratory services and products to the healthcare industry

Shares in an East Midlands lab-tech company which provides services ranging from cancer detection to Covid-19 testing, have started trading on the AIM stock exchange.

Nottingham-based SourceBio International plc started trading after an IPO which raised £35 million.

The business, with has a presence across six sites in the UK, Ireland and America, has customers in more than 90 countries, and provides laboratory services and products to the healthcare and clinical, life science research and biopharma industries.

It works in areas such as gene sequencing, histopathology services, screening and diagnostic testing for cancer and other diseases as well as infectious disease testing, and is valued at £120 million.

More recently it has been conducting Covid-19 testing for people working in front-line services in the public and private sector, as well as patients and others at risk.

Money raised from the IPO will go to its shareholders and to pay off bank loans and to plan potential mergers and acquisitions.

It will also be invested in scaling-up its Covid-19 testing business.

The company, which is based on the Nottingham Business Park, said the placing attracted “strong support” from “high quality” institutional investors and was significantly over-subscribed.

Executive chairman Jay LeCoque said: We are delighted by the strong support we’ve received from new institutional investors and our existing shareholders.

He said, our IPO on AIM allows us to significantly increase our Covid-19 testing capacity, accelerate earnings growth in our core business and execute on potential M&A opportunities.

The group, which employs 235 people, was originally listed on the London main market but was acquired and delisted in September 2016.

Its new owners completed a turn-around plan which included the appointment of Jay LeCoque as chairman and the appointment of new management who simplified the group’s operations and moved out of unprofitable and non-core operations.

Last year turnover from the group’s core business areas – excluding infectious disease testing –was almost £20 million with an EBITDA of £2.8 million.