About LGC

Financial results

Financial highlights 2003-2004

After eight years as our institutional investor, 3i Group plc has now sold its shareholding in LGC. Private equity investor, Legal & General Ventures has acquired 3i's stake and a proportion of the staff shareholding, thus becoming the majority shareholder in LGC.

Investing in science

Investment in science - acquiring state-of-the-art instrumentation and developing excellent people - has been central to LGC's growth strategy over the eight successful years since the company was formed.

During the year we opened two new BSE testing laboratories, one at our Runcorn site and the other in Edinburgh. Our largest single investment this year has been the acquisition of Mikromol, a dynamic company near Berlin in Germany, which has particular expertise in the synthesis of pharmaceutical impurity reference standards.

Other highlights of the past year include:

LGC's scene of crime DNA forensic laboratory at Runcorn was accredited and formally opened by Baroness James of Holland Park (P.D. James);
In July 2003 the Metropolitan Police awarded LGC a major contract to provide DNA forensic services from a dedicated part of our Teddington laboratory;
Our Runcorn chemical analytical laboratories were awarded a significant outsourcing contract by British Nuclear Group for the accurate determination of metals in a variety of materials;
As part of our strategy to develop our pharmaceutical and biotechnology services, we signed collaboration agreements with four established market players: Pharmidex, BioDiversity, AKOS and ChemOvation;
LGC assisted the DTI in the planning and formulation of the new Measurements for Biotechnology programme;
We entered into agreements to exploit intellectual property including our rapid genetic measurement technology, HyBeacons^® and the genetic sequence, CYP2D6, which predicts pharmacogenetic interactions;
For the third year in a row, we received the RoSPA President's Award for Occupational Health and Safety, following five years as a Gold Medal Award winner.

Business sector review 2003-04 (1517KB)

Annual report and accounts 2003-04 (559KB)