BioMerieux CEO sees growth resurgence in U.S.

PARIS (Reuters) - The chief of healthcare 'in vitro' diagnostics group BioMerieux (BIOX.PA) said on Wednesday the group's organic growth of sales in the United States should reach 8-10 percent after a sales force reorganization.

"The plan of action has been put in place to restart growth in local currency over the second half of the year with a continuation into the first half of next year," CEO Stephane Bancel told Reuters in an interview.

"Therefore for me, in twelve months time, we should be on a stable growth path for the years to come," he added.

In the United States, this growth rate was "not far from 8 to 10 percent" according to Bancel.

The French group saw its North American sales fall 0.3 percent on a like-for-like basis in the second quarter of 2008 and only 1.6 percent first-half organic growth after a complete reorganization of its American sales force.

"I am optimistic that the United States will begin to grow again. Last year we managed 10 percent organic growth and so it is not a dream to achieve growth of 8 to 10 percent," Bancel said.

"We needed to acquire a sales force which would allow us to keep this sort of internal growth to prepare for the next five years," he added.

With regards to its acquisition strategy, Bancel said that BioMerieux was aiming to buy companies which would complete its technological expertise at the heart of its activities.

"I am much more interested in buying a small group like AB Biodisk (bought in June 2008) with a very innovative product, which creates value for clients and complements our current supply well, rather than buying a large company with a business network I don't need," he added.

Asked how much BioMerieux could afford to spend on such an acquisition he said the firm could raise equity.

"We have a debt of 62 million euros ($97.54 million) and close to 400 million euros of equity... We have always said that we were ready to double the equity capital, up to a billion euros if we had to."

Bancel added that BioMerieux, in which the Merieux family has a stake of some 60 percent, "had never had any problem in raising capital".

He said that the group was mainly interested in the United States and in Asia as well as in the microbiology sector, where it is aiming for 40 percent of global market share.

BioMerieux's is currently number seven in the world in diagnostics and competes with Merck (MRK.N), Oxoid, Invitrogen IVGN.O, Becton Dickinson (BDX.N) and Sigma & Cambrex.

BioMerieux provides diagnostic solutions such as reagents, instruments and software to determine the source of disease and contamination.

The group's share price was up 3.22 percent to 72.36 euros in mid-afternoon trade after better than expected first-half sales, giving it a market value of 2.86 billion euros.