Novacyt facing delays in disposal of Yourgene Taiwan

Molecular diagnostics company Novacyt updated the market on the conditional disposal of its laboratory in Taiwan, which it acquired as part of its purchase of Yourgene Health on 8 September.

The AIM-traded firm noted that Yourgene initially announced the conditional divestment of its Taiwanese subsidiary, Yourgene Health Taiwan, to Singapore-based molecular diagnostics company INEX Innovate on 13 June.

It was set to yield proceeds of up to $4m (£3.2m).

The divestment was contingent on two main conditions, with the first being Yourgene's completion of a pre-closing restructure to facilitate the transfer of retained personnel and assets to other group companies, pending approval from the Taiwanese government.

Secondly, it relied on INEX obtaining Taiwanese government approval for the acquisition, as mandated for non-Taiwanese buyers.

While the restructuring was complete, obtaining the necessary approvals proved more time-consuming than initially anticipated.

As a result, management did not anticipate the transaction to conclude by the end of 2023, as previously expected.

Both Novacyt and INEX remained committed to finalising the transaction as they worked to expedite the approval process.

Novacyt indicated it would provide a further update on the disposal as part of its trading update in January.

At 1457 GMT, shares in Novacyt were down 3.87% at 61.04p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.