Haemonetics Corp. laid down $12.5 million in cash for Engineering and Research Associates Inc.’s (which does business for now as SEBRA) blood collection and processing business.
The deal, expected to close “within the next several weeks,” brings SEBRA’s line of biological collection and processing equipment under the Braintree, Mass.-based blood management products maker’s umbrella.
That includes the Tucson, Ariz.-based company’s radio-frequency tube sealers, whole blood collection devices called “shakers” and mobile collection and ancillary equipment.
Haemonetics president and CEO Brian Concannon said the acquisition is a prelude to launching the automated whole blood collection system the company is developing, which is slated to début in late fiscal 2011.
For its part, SEBRA plans to re-brand later this year to focus on its core business, providing engineering consulting services in thermal-forming, sealing and welding plastics for medical device manufacturing and biopharmaceutical companies, president and CEO Roger Vogel said.
Haemonetics will assume the SEBRA brand, which posted sales of $10 million last year, and relocate its operations to Braintree and Salt Lake City.
The company posted first-quarter sales of $154.1 million, up 6.9 percent compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2009, and net income of $18.1 million, up 26 percent compared with the same period last year.
