StockerYale Acquires Photonic Products for $9.4M

StockerYale Inc., a provider of photonic-based products, announced yesterday it has acquired privately held laser diode maker Photonic Products Ltd. of England for $9.4 million.

Under the terms of the transaction, StockerYale paid a total of $9.4 million for Photonic Products, with $4.25 million paid in cash, $2.75 million in StockerYale stock and $2.4 million in a three-year bond payable to the sellers.

StockerYale said it expects the acquisition to add approximately $12 million in revenue and $1.5 million to $2.9 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) to its bottom line for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2007.

"With this acquisition, StockerYale's laser sales will double and our opportunity for future sales is considerably greater due to a more diversified laser product portfolio, multiple cross-selling opportunities and access to new markets for each other's products," said Mark W. Blodgett, chairman and CEO. He added that StockerYale expects to see significant cost savings through Photonic Products' laser diode distribution business and by combining the companies' marketing efforts.

Photonic Products Ltd. manufactures custom-designed electro-optical subassemblies and optoelectronic components, based on semiconductor laser diode technology, for the OEM market. It also distributes high-performance industrial laser diodes, including blue-violet, red and infrared laser diodes from Sanyo, Sony and Opnext, and high-performance optical lenses from Panasonic. The company was founded in 1995 and has 45 employees.

StockerYale said Photonic Products' current management, led by Tony Pope, founder and managing director, and Damon Cookman, director of operations, will stay in place.

Because StockerYale has historically sold primarily into the machine vision market and Photonic Products sells to non-machine vision markets, there is little overlap in the markets they serve, StockerYale said.

Photonic Products operations are located near Stansted, England, with sales offices in Germany and California. Over the last five years, the company’s revenues have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent. It recently invested in CNC (computer numerical control) manufacturing technology to increase production capacity and improve productivity.

For the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2006, Photonic Products expects sales to be approximately $9.5 million and to achieve a record operating margin of 15 percent. This year, Photonic Products received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade, a United Kingdom award for business performance.

StockerYale, Inc., with headquarters in Salem, manufactures structured light lasers, LED modules, and specialty optical fibers for industry OEMs. It also makes fluorescent lighting products and phase masks for the machine vision, industrial inspection, defense, telecommunication, sensors and medical markets. StockerYale has offices and subsidiaries in the US, Canada and Europe.

For more information, visit: www.stockeryale.com