ventracor assets

HeartWare swoops on Ventracor assets

Nick Evans
Thursday, 3 September 2009

HEARTWARE has been picking over the corpse of its former rival, buying a swathe of the collapsed company’s manufacturing equipment, recruiting its US-based staff and entering into discussions to buy one of Ventracor’s two Australian manufacturing facilities.

BTN understands that HeartWare is negotiating for the purchase of Ventracor’s former Kirrawee manufacturing facility as a base to manufacture parts for its own devices. Heartware also picked through Ventracor’s manufacturing equipment in the online auction run by its receivers last month, purchasing a number of items relatively cheaply.

HeartWare investor relations manager Howard Leibman said he could not comment on the mooted purchase of the Kirrawee facility, but confirmed the company had bought equipment from the online auction and had poached a “handful” of Ventracor’s US-based clinical and manufacturing staff.

There’s still no real clarity on what will happen to Ventracor’s intellectual property. Last week, administrators Ferrier Hodgson told BTN that discussions on the sale of Ventracor’s IP were ongoing, but would not comment on specifics.

Even an IP sale is unlikely to give any comfort to Ventracor investors, however. On August 20, Ferrier Hodgson told shareholders there was no prospect of a capital return after the liquidation and wind-up, and that shareholders could declare their investment as a capital loss this financial year.

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