Superconductor wafer maker IQE is paying £3.6 million for Bath University industrial lighting products spin-out NanoGen.

Superconductor wafer maker IQE is paying £3.6 million for Bath University industrial lighting products spin-out NanoGen.

Cardiff-based IQE is buying NanoGan for an initial £400,000 in cash and shares, with further maximum of £3.2 million payable in IQE’s choice of cash or shares. The addition of Bath-based NanoGan, which brings seven patented technologies and a number of further patentable innovations, accelerates IQE’s plan to move into a ‘leadership position’ in the fast-growing markets for high-definition optical storage and ‘solid state’ lighting for industrial, commercial and residential markets.

IQE’s chief executive Dr Drew Nelson points out the acquisition widens the product portfolio and provides a ‘perfect complement’ to the group’s existing strength in supplying wireless and opto-electronic markets, as well as its emerging solar energy business. ‘We now operate in a range of diverse international markets, all with powerful drivers including high growth consumer applications and political and legislative trends towards technological solutions to address environmental challenges,’ he says.

As well as welcoming NanoGan’s founder, Professor Wang Nang Wang, who will join IQE’s board as chief scientific officer, Nelson adds that ‘current trading across the group continues to be strong’. The board thus ‘remains confident of meeting market expectations for the full year 2009’.