Nikon zooms in on Optos potential

Shareholders of Optos have this morning woken up to news that lenses, imaging and instrument firm Nikon Corporation has agreed to buy the Scottish retinal imaging company for around £260m.

Booming sales of the Optos’ distinctive Daytona device no doubt caught the eye of the Tokyo-based group.

Indeed, during a press briefing hosted by Optos CEO Roy Davis late last year, Optician was told 60-70 per cent of practices in the UK now bought Daytona outright rather than leasing – doing no harm to cashflow.

It secured 1,536 new Daytona customers in 2014, compared to 1,271 in the prior year, and had streamlined manufacturing costs, which would have further improved margins. Optos’ new California and Lotte devices also follow the design mould of big technology for small spaces, and the company had posted a 7 per cent rise in total revenue to $170.6m.