Bio-One continues expansion into China
that it has no intention of slowing down its attempts to grow
through an aggressive acquisition strategy, announcing its purchase
of a majority interest in another Chinese herbal medicine company.
Bio-One stated that it has signed an agreement to acquire a 51 percent interest in a Chinese herbal medicine company in the Henan province. The 465 employee strong business apparently reported revenues in 2003 of $17 million, an operating profit of $3.2 million and owns assets totaling $9 million.
The unnamed company produces herbal medicines, nutrition products, drugs and medical devices, which it sells directly to customers and distributes via agencies, wholesalers, retailers and hospitals.
Bio-One explained in a statement that the purchase terms included cash and convertible preferred stock priced at $2 and $3 per share and that the Henan business will continue to be run with its present management team.
This is just the latest in a series of companies to have been brought into the Bio-One fold. Since September 2003, Bio-One has acquired five companies, which collectively reported 2003 audited revenues of $38 million and operating profits (EBITDA) of $5.8 million. They are the supplements marketer, PNLabs, supplements distributors, American Nutritional Exchange, Interactive Nutrition International and Florida Sport Nutrition Distributors, and WeiFang Shengtai Pharmaceuticals, a Chinese glucose manufacturer.
In addition, the Florida based company has started to make its presence felt in China with a series of agreements to acquire majority shares in various Chinese herbal medicine companies of which that in the Henan province is the most recent.
In March Bio-One announced it had agreed to acquire a 51 percent interest in a firm with reported 2003 revenues of $20 million. In May Bio-One signed to purchase a share of a Hebei province company with reported 2003 revenues of $9 million. And in June a business in the Guangzhou province with reported 2003 reveunues of $10 million agreed to give Bio-One a 51 percent interest in its firm.
Earlier this month, Bio-One announced that its revenue for the second fiscal quarter of 2004 would exceed $13 million and that it expected its operating profits to be approximately $2 million.
"These results reflect the impact of our continuing acquisitions and vertical integration program", said Armand Dauplaise, the president and CEO of Bio-One.
