MD sells some shares to give his life a tonic
Apr 11 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal
THE managing director of a medical company has netted more than £300,000 from selling part of his equity in the company to help fund a house move and start a new hobby of restoring classic cars.
Last week nebusiness reported that South Tyneside firm IDS had almost doubled sales in a year to £19m.
MD Dr Roger Duggan said then he expected turnover to reach £40m in two years, saying the sky was the limit.
Yesterday Dr Duggan decided to cash in on his hard work and sold 170,933 shares at 183.5p each. A statement from Immunodiagnostic Systems Ltd (IDS) to the stock market yesterday said: “The sale of the shares was necessitated by Dr Duggan’s wish to finance the purchase of a new family home and he has no plans to dispose of further shares for the foreseeable future.”
Dr Duggan, 59, said he was moving with his family from Shadforth, County Durham, to Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire. The house, with five bedrooms and two studies, has outhouses which he will use for restoring cars including Morris Minors and Triumphs.
He said: “Selling these shares is a way of securing my retirement, if you will. Now that the kids have flown the roost, it just seemed sensible to move on. Now I can begin my new hobby and I can hardly wait.”
He said all his money had been tied up in the 27-year old company since he acquired it in a 1996 management buyout. He raided more of his personal funds to float it on the Alternative Investment Market in 2004. He said: “I have put a lot of money into this business and, as it is doing so well, thought it was the right time to get some of it back.”
Divisional director of Brewin Dolphin Newcastle, Vinay Bedi, said: “Market analysts do like to keep a keen eye on share sales in case there are concerns there is something going wrong with the company.
“But at some point it is considered reasonable to release some of the wealth of a successful business.”
The firm, which makes medical diag- nostic kits for early detection of bone diseases and cancer, employs 65 people in Boldon, South Tyneside.
The business, which also has sites in the US, Germany, France and Denmark, bought French firm Biocode Hycel for £15.5m and Scandinavian group Nordic Bioscience Diagnostics for £17m in the last financial year. Dr Duggan still owns 9.27% of the company.
