Novacyt to buy Yourgene Health in £16.7m deal

Yourgene Health surged on Monday after it agreed to be bought by Novacyt in a £16.7m deal.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Novacyt will pay 0.522p per share in cash. This is a premium of around 167.7% the closing Yourgene share price on Friday.

Yourgene chief executive Lyn Rees said: "The board of Yourgene welcome the offer from Novacyt UK. The prospect and scale of what the new enlarged group could bring to our customers, employees and other stakeholders is exciting given the complimentary fit of both businesses.

"Whilst the two companies work within the same molecular diagnostic space, they both bring distinctive strengths and are focused in different market segments, which opens up further opportunities for growth."

At 1245 BST, Yourgene shares were up 138% at 0.46p.