Biohit Oyj (OMXH: BIOBV.B) has chosen to return a sizeable portion of the net proceeds from the sale of its liquid handling business to Sartorius Lab Holding GmbH to its shareholders. The Board is suggesting to AGM to pay a dividend of EUR 0.1973 per each A share and EUR 0,2007 for each B share and to return 0.80 Euros per each A and B share as capital repayment.
Biohit has around 13 million shares. Its gross proceeds from the Sartorium deal are 68 million and net proceeds after taxes should be well above 3 Euros. It is somewhat unusual for a company entering clinical studies and other investments to be returning cash, but the share has been trading below its cash and cash equivalents until this announcement has pushed to stock to a 25% gain in two trading days. Long-suffering investors have thus taken the news with great delight.
Biohit said it the time of the Sartorium transaction that it will focus on its diagnostics business and cancer prevention. The until now loss-making diagnostics business, with is GastroPanel stomach disease and risk assessment device, Colonview colorectal cancer test device and Acetium to reduce carcinogenic acetaldehyde, has been a drag on the share value.
Biohit has said it will invest to strengthen sales and marketing network to tap into their products global potential. Recently it also started a clinical study with BioAcetium product in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.
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