Oxford Instruments plc, the high technology tools and systems company, and RIBER SA, the leading Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) company announced today that the MBE business currently owned by Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology Ltd (OIPT), has been sold to RIBER in Bezons, France.
OIPT has an aggressive product development plan to enhance existing product lines and expand into new markets, as well as a growing portfolio of new products in development. In the last 12 months, OIPT has seen significant growth in a number of markets and the transfer of the MBE business will allow it to focus more sharply on these areas. This is consistent with the company’s strategy to double the size of the business and increase Return on Sales by ten percentage points . OIPT is confident that RIBER will continue to offer the level of support required by its MBE customers. The transfer takes place in advance of OIPT’s relocation to a new facility .
RIBER is a world leader in providing MBE equipment and components to public and private major research centres and industrial foundry companies. In line with its strategy to develop sales of service and accessories for MBE equipment, this acquisition will strongly reinforce RIBER’s share of the MBE market in Europe, North America and Asia. RIBER will henceforth be able to service approximately 75% of the worldwide installed base, with the number of MBE systems having increased from about 500 to 800. Over recent years, the average turnover of this purchased activity was above 1.2 million Euros. This will strengthen RIBER’s after-sale business which has increased by about 35% in 2008 vs 2007 as a result of internal growth and the recent merger with ADDON. RIBER extensive support structure will ensure that OIPT’s MBE customers will continue to receive world class service and support.