SHARES in Aortech, the biomaterials group which once employed 200 in Lanarkshire, have hit a three-year high on hopes of wider recognition for the AIM-listed group following its move to the US this year.
The shares, at 205p a week ago, jumped to 218p last Friday when the company announced a licence agreement with a “large multi-national device/drug partner... in the field of medical sensors”.
They have climbed sharply this week, jumping some 8% to 282p yesterday, their highest level since July 2008.
The excitement appears to have been fuelled by a Credit Suisse analyst’s report on US giant St Jude Medical, upgrading its value by 10% or some £1.6bn on the basis of the competitive advantage of ‘Optim’, which is actually Elasteon, Aortech’s biomaterial which it supplies to St Jude.
Aortech closed its Bellshill plant at the end of 2004 and moved production to Australia, where some of its key technology originated.
But this year it has moved again, this time to Minnesota in the US, coinciding with the return as finance director of Eddie McDaid, its founder and former chief executive. And in a further recent change, Bill Brown of Bluehone Investors has replaced colleague Stuart Rollason, both former managers at F & C in Edinburgh, as a non-executive.
Mr Brown commented yesterday that the shares had been volatile in the past, and the company would be updating the market next month.
He added: “Shareholders have the perception that we will do things slightly differently, there has been a change with Eddie coming back into an executive role and I have got involved from a shareholder perspective.”
He added: “The move from Australia to Minneapolis is very good for the company – it is the US centre for medical device companies. There is a lot more interest being shown in the company.”
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