Paris, 10 November 2010 – Ergon Capital Partners III SA ("Ergon") announces today that it has reached an agreement with the shareholders of ELITech Group. Following this agreement, ELITech Group will be acquired by a newly incorporated company controlled by Ergon, alongside the founders (Financière du Bief and Biotech International), the historical financial investors (BNP Paribas Développement, Idia Participations, Naxicap and Synergie Finance), and Management.

With six manufacturing sites in France, the USA, the Netherlands and Italy and 14 subsidiaries, ELITech Group is a leading independent manufacturer and distributor of in vitro diagnostic equipment, tests and reagents focused on small to medium-sized, proximity and emergency diagnostic laboratories. The Group is currently active in 3 segments of the diagnostics market: biochemistry, microbiology and molecular diagnostics. ELITech Group also operates as a distributor of third-party products to small to medium-sized and proximity laboratories. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, ELITech Group reported proforma sales of €92.0 million and EBITDA of €12.1 million.

Pierre Debiais, CEO of ELITech Group commented: "This is a strategically important step in the development of the Group. Ergon is a reputed investment institution, which will provide us with its expertise in the future transformation of the Group by bringing further professional qualities and capacity to the organization and by assisting us in making add-on acquisitions. I take this opportunity to thank our historical financial shareholders for their support to date and am looking forward to a continuing partnership with them, together with Ergon".

Serge Touati, partner at Ergon Capital Advisors, added: "Ergon is very enthusiastic to team up with a management team of such quality and to assist them in continuing the growth story by developing the Group, notably through add-on acquisitions".

"The In Vitro Diagnostic market is a very dynamic sector, and we are convinced that ELITech's focused positioning will lead to significant growth opportunities for the Group over the coming years", highlights Wolfgang de Limburg, partner at Ergon Capital Advisors.

Ergon was advised by Leonardo Midcap CF (M&A), Weil Gotshal & Manges (Legal and Structuring), Deloitte (Financial), Taj (Tax and Labour), L.E.K (Strategy), Marsh (Insurance) and URS (Environmental).

ELITech shareholders and Management were advised by Jacques Ittah - Wil Consulting (M&A) and WSA Avocats (Legal).

---

About Ergon

Ergon Capital Partners III SA ("Ergon") is a mid-market private equity investment company with €775 million under management backed by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), which targets equity investment from €20 million up to €75 million in companies located in France, Benelux, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Headquartered in Brussels, Ergon has offices in Paris, Milan and Madrid. Ergon's investment philosophy is one of value creation in partnership with management, following an industrial strategy to generate long-term.