Raisio has placed a public offer to acquire all shares in Diffchamb, the Swedish based company specialising in diagnostics and testing equipment for processed foods.

The total value of the transaction amounts to approximately €17.3 million.

The company said that the offer represents a premium of approximately 50 per cent based on the last paid price yesterday. The acquisition creates a goodwill of about €12 million for Raisio Group. Taken into account the goodwill depreciation and the increasing financial expenses, the company added that it expects the acquisition will be slightly earnings dilutive during the first year.

The Diffchamb Board of Directors has unanimously recommended the shareholders of Diffchamb to accept the offer. Certain shareholders, representing 42.03 per cent of the share capital and votes, have irrevocably undertaken to accept and support the offer. The acceptance period is expected to run between 6-26 March 2003.

Diffchamb is an international biotechnology company involved in development, manufacturing and sales of equipment for foodstuff testing, so-called quality control. Diffchamb is specialised in rapid and efficient analysis products based on modern technology. Diffchamb's turnover for 2001 amounted to €10 million. The number of employees was approximately 100 at the end of 2002.

The current strategic goal for Raisio Life Sciences is to expand its business into food and animal feed diagnostics. Raisio Life Sciences has been evaluating various alternatives for expansion into these areas and says that Diffchamb provides a good market coverage and presence in many of the key markets it is aiming at. In addition, Diffchamb offers a wide range of products and applications in most of the high growth segments of food testing. This combined with Diffchamb's strong and experienced management team and organisation provides Raisio Life Sciences with what the company terms "an excellent platform to build a strong global food diagnostics business".