Nobel Hunting for Acquisitions?
Swiss dental implant maker Nobel Biocare (NOBN.VX) expects an improvement in business in the second half, the company’s chief executive was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview, boosting the company’s shares.
“The second half of the year should already be better,” Nobel Biocare CEO Domenico Scala told Swiss weekly newspaper Handelszeitung, according to an interview released on Tuesday, a day ahead of the paper’s publication.
The company has shocked investors with a series of profit warnings in recent months, missing targets as customers cut spending due to economic uncertainty.
Scala said the company’s current forecast would remain valid after the second quarter if the overall economy did not deteriorate further.
Nobel Biocare shares have lost around 36 percent so far this year, sparking speculation that the world’s largest maker of dental implants could be taken over.
“We have the financial as well as the strategic resources to form our future alone,” Scala told the newspaper when asked about the market talk. The company was eyeing acquisitions itself, Scala said: “It is clear that growth will also happen through acquisitions.”
Nobel Biocare was looking for smaller targets in the range of 50 to 100 million Swiss francs ($48.45 to $96.90 million) in the field of ceramics or software, Scala said.
(Source: Reuters, Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Will Waterman and David Holmes)