Newport to acquire Ophir Optronics, maker of IR optics and 3-D non-contact measurement equipment

Newport (NASDAQ:NEWP; Irvine, CA, USA) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ophir Optronics (Jerusalem, Israel), a manufacturer of precision infrared optics, photonics instrumentation, and 3-D non-contact measurement equipment. Newport will pay $8.43 per share, or a total of approximately $230 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011. Newport expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its earnings following the closing.

Robert J. Phillippy, Newport’s President and CEO, said, “We are very excited to have Ophir join the Newport team. This transaction will bring together two industry leaders in photonics technology and will create some very exciting growth opportunities for the combined company. The acquisition will provide a platform for us to enter high growth applications in thermal imaging and 3-D non-contact measurement. We expect the addition of Ophir to further strengthen our financial model and enable us to achieve even higher levels of profitability and cash generation.”

Ophir has manufacturing operations in Israel and the US and sales offices in the US, Japan, and Europe. Its shares are publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the trading symbol OPIR. For the twelve-month period ended March 31, 2011, Ophir had revenue of $111.8 million and operating income of $12.5 million. For its first quarter ended March 31, 2011, Ophir reported revenue of $30.2 million and operating income of $3.9 million. Over the five year period from 2006 to 2010, Ophir’s compound annual growth rate in revenue was approximately 19%. For fiscal year 2010, approximately 48% of its sales were to customers in the US, 34% to customers in Israel, and Europe, and 18% to customers in Asia. The company has approximately 650 employees worldwide.

SOURCE: Newport

--Posted by Vision Systems Design