Boston, MA — September 12, 2007 — Covington Associates LLC announced today that it acted as the financial advisor to Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (AMEX: IMA) in its acquisition of Cholestech (NASDAQ: CTEC), a cardiac diagnostics company. The transaction is a stock for stock merger valued at $326 million. This is the fourth transaction that Covington Associates has advised Inverness on in 2007, representing over $3 billion in transaction value.
Inverness Medical Innovations, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a manufacturer and seller of consumer and professional diagnostic products focused on women’s health, cardiology and infectious disease. Cholestech, based in Haywood, California, is a leading provider of diagnostic tools and information for immediate risk assessment and therapeutic monitoring of heart disease and inflammatory disorders. Inverness anticipates that the acquisition will be accretive in the short term and that there will be many opportunities between Cholestech and its existing point of care organization and Inverness’ recent pending and completed acquisitions.
“We expect that the acquisition of Cholestech, especially when coupled with our recent and pending acquisitions, will provide Inverness with the unique ability to assess cardiac risk, diagnose cardiac conditions and potentially monitor the condition and response to therapy of cardiac patients. The Covington Associates Team has been a great value to Inverness’ ability to grow through acquisitions and expand our diagnostic capabilities in our cardiology business line,” said Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness.
Tom Cibotti, a Managing Director at Covington Associates, was quoted as saying “We continue to enjoy our longstanding advisory relationship with Inverness Medical, as the Company continues its expansion in the cardiology rapid diagnostics field. The recent pending acquisitions of Cholestech and Biosite, among others, are transforming Inverness into a leading player in the professional point of care rapid diagnostics arena.”
About Cholestech Corporation
Cholestech provides easy to use, accessible diagnostic tools and information to health care practitioners in over 35 countries around the world. Cholestech offers efficient and economic diagnostic testing for cholesterol and related lipids and liver enzymes at the point of care. For more information about Cholestech and its products visit us on the web at http://www.Cholestech.com.
About Covington Associates LLC
Covington Associates is a specialty investment banking firm founded in 1991 serving business service, consumer, industrial, healthcare and technology companies throughout the country. Focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, debt and equity restructuring, and strategic advisory assignments for middle market companies, Covington Associates has completed transactions ranging in value from $10 million to over $1 billion for both private and publicly traded companies. To learn more about Covington Associates, visit www.covingtonassociates.com.
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