Genus eyes acquisitions after PIC success

"People are queuing up to sell their companies to us and now that we have demonstrated that we could do it with Sygen, we could go into other animals as well," said Chief Executive Richard Wood in a telephone interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

"We could strengthen our business and buy a competitor or we could diversify into chickens, because poultry is an interesting business with a high margin," Wood said.

Genus, which provides sperm from bulls for cattle breeding, increased its sales to 116.3 million pounds ($224.4 million) in the year to Dec. 31 from 60.9 million in 2005. Profit before tax rose to 6.1 million pounds from 5 million.

With a third of revenue coming from its older business, the lion's share came from Sygen, which Genus bought for 187 million pounds in 2005 to reduce its dependency on one type of animal.

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