Lab coats make way for pin-stripes

The potential sale of leading laboratory analysis group Amdel has entered a new phase, with a small number of interested parties settling into the group's data room after lodging indicative bids just before Easter.

Amdel was bought from Healthscope in a Champ Ventures-sponsored MBO in late 2005, but after adding numerous businesses over the past two years and investing heavily in new and expanded laboratories in Mount Isa and Adelaide, Champ has decided to test the market for buyers.

It has hired Caliburn and Goldman Sachs to run a two-tracked process – Caliburn for trade sales, Goldmans for the float – but with the equity markets all over the shop in the past few months, it looks like the former might do better out of the mandate than the latter.

Amdel, with an estimated worth of around $400 million, is attractive because it is one of the last major independents in the country, having itself bought Independent Metallurgical Laboratories and Ultra Trace last year, and just last month adding environmental laboratory specialist LabMark to its portfolio.

It is likely to have generated interest from a variety of international groups, such as SGS Minerals Services, and the UK based Intertek, as well as Inspectorate, which earlier this year expanded into Australia with the purchase of the Perth-based Kalassay.

Another potential bidder is Amdel's major local competitor, the listed Campbell Bros, which last year added Australian coal technology group ACIRL, and US-based environmental laboratory group e-lab to its collection of businesses.