Florence, January 19, 2004 - ELEN, a leader in the market for lasers, has led to 60% its stake in Quanta System SpA, having gained another 30% of the shares owned by the Milan-based company. This transaction brings under the control of El.En Group, one of the most important Italian business companies in the fields of development and manufacture of lasers, even in the space sector, a historical presence that is currently experiencing a period of rapid growth. Quanta System also owns the remaining 50% shares in Asclepion Laser Technologies Gmbh, the German company of the El.En Group which took over from Carl Zeiss Meditec AG the business activities of the aesthetics segment. The transaction will consist in the assignment of shares by El.En to Laserfin (a company having the majority control of Quanta System): 10% of the subsidiary Deka MELA Srl and 2.5% of U.S. Cynosure Inc., in addition to a disbursement of €1.5 million. This has led to a further involvement of the management of Quanta System into the medical sector activities of the El.En. Group, as well as to a thorough integration of a high-skilled, accurately selected team of R & D into the same Group. Quanta System, founded in 1984 as a spin-off of CISE (a former research centre of Enel - an Italian public utility company based in Milan) started its activity as a firm purely oriented to doing research into the laser and opto-electronics sector, to turn over the years, into a strongly engineering and production oriented company. From the original patent S.F.U.R. (Self Filtering Unstable Resonator), which has contributed to Quanta System’s activity in the early years, the management has taken great advantage to define the life of the company, continuously focussing on innovation of laser products in scientific, industrial and medical fields. Quanta System has also advocated policies of product differentiation over the years, thus steadily increasing its presence on the market, especially in the medical sector, which has represented 70% of sales, in the fiscal year 2003.
Thanks to the synergies that will be developed with El.En. and Asclepion Laser Technologies too, Quanta System, that in the new High-Tech premises located in Solbiate Olona (Italy) will count about 50 employees in 2004, will continue in the internationalization effort that has characterized its recent years of activity, since the launch of the first medical lasers in 1986. During the year 2002, the company’s turnover was € 5.3 million (an increase of 61% over the previous fiscal year) with an EBITDA of € 216 thousand and net income of € 54 thousand; the year 2003 marked a further increase in the turnover accounting for about € 7 million, with a strong growth in terms of profitability. The President of ELEN Group, Mr. Gabriele Clementi, said: "After several transactions whose aim is to widen geographically the presence of our Group around the world, having taken over Quanta, allows us to further strengthen our capacity for development and innovation in the opto-electronics field: two Key factors to keep the supremacy over the markets we gained. In the past, we have cooperated several times with Quanta and we know perfectly their know-out and potential"
Being active in the opto-electronics sector, El.En. is the leader of a high-tech Industrial Group, which manufactures gas, solid and liquid state laser sources, as well as innovative laser systems for medical and industrial applications, by resorting to its own technology and a multidisciplinary know-how.
The El.En. Group, an Italian leader in the market for lasers and among the first companies in Europe, designs, manufactures and markets worldwide not only medical laser equipment used in dermatology, surgery, aesthetics, physiotherapy, dentistry, gynaecology, but also laser systems for industrial applications ranging from cutting, marking and welding metals, wood, plastic, glass decoration of leathers and fabrics, to the restoration of works of art.
El.En. is listed on the Milan TECH-STAR Stock Exchange since December 2000 with a floating of around 30% and a capitalisation of around € 70 million.