Oxford Instruments sells its shares in Oxford Diffraction

Oxford Instruments has sold its shares in an X-ray crystallography company.

The high technology tools and systems company announced on Thursday that it had disposed of its 23 per cent holding in Oxford Diffraction Limited.

Varian has paid 3.5 million pounds for the company and the deal could include an additional 1.1 million pounds over the next three years, depending on the performance of the firm.

The cash will be used to reduce Oxford Instruments’ debt.

Oxford Diffraction, based in Abingdon near Oxford, was spun out of Oxford Instruments in March 2001 in order to develop, manufacture and supply analytical instrumentation for X-ray crystallography.

As this technique was not core to the firm, it was developed as an independent company using outside capital and resources.

In a statement, Oxford Instruments, said that it has treated its holding in Oxford Diffraction Limited as an investment, the carrying value of which was 0.3 million pounds on September 30th 2007.

"This disposal will result in a non-recurring profit, before costs, of approximately 3.2m pounds on the initial consideration of 3.5m pounds," it added.

Oxford Instruments aims to be the leading provider of tools and systems for the emerging nanotechnology and bioscience markets.