Medical firm Trinity Biotech yesterday agreed to acquire a large blood-test business from the US group Sigma Diagnostics.

Terms were not disclosed although it is thought that Trinity paid less than its expected first-year revenues from the business, which it put at $11 million (€11.14 million).

Shares in Trinity traded marginally higher on the Nasdaq, increasing by 0.64 per cent to $1.41 shortly after lunchtime in New York.

The company said some 25 jobs would be created at its base in Bray, Co Wicklow, when the deal was finalised in the first quarter next year.

The acquisition follows a €7 million deal last November when Trinity bought Biopool Hemostasis, a division of Xtrana Inc. That purchase is also expected to create 25 new jobs at the company, which employs about 220 in Co Wicklow.

Trinity said the latest deal would see the company acquire a suite of products and instruments for testing blood, currently manufactured in St Louis, Missouri, and Lemgo in Germany.

Staff at Sigma would be offered positions with Trinity, with the aim of enlarging its sales and marketing operation in the US and Germany.

Sigma Diagnostics makes some 50 routine and special tests.

Trinity's president, Mr Brendan Farrell, said the new portfolio would complete the range acquired from Biopool.

It comprised small, mid-sized and large automated and semi-automated instruments and a new analysis product to scrutinise coagulation, the ability of blood to form clots.

The purchase consideration will be paid in cash at closing.

Citing "significant synergies" that would arise from merging the two businesses, Trinity said the deal would be earnings-enhancing.

The company's chief executive, Mr Ronan O'Caoimh, said: "Trinity's immediate priority is to provide the highest quality service and support to Sigma hemostasis customers and to work diligently to ensure a speedy close of the transaction and a smooth transition of the business."