Ireland's Icon plans follow-on of 1.1 million shares, secondary of 1.5 million shares for $125 million total

By Ronda Fears

Memphis, April 19 - Icon plc announced Wednesday that it intends to offer 1,096,054 of American Depositary Shares and that certain holders are selling 1.5 million ADS.

Dublin-based Icon is a contract research organization, or CRO, focusing on phase 1 through 4 clinical trials management, study design, laboratory services and drug development support.

Icon said proceeds from the follow-on offering, estimated roughly at $52.8 million, will be used for general corporate purposes, as yet undefined specifically.

Proceeds from the secondary offering, by company director Ronan Lamb and Poplar Ltd., are estimated at $72.3 million. Before the offering, Lamb held 952,470 shares, or a 6.8% equity take in Icon, and Poplar held 1,494,892 shares, or a 10.7% stake. Poplar is controlled by company chairman John Climax.

At year-end 2005, the company said it had $59.5 million in cash and equivalents plus $22.8 million of short-term investments that could be liquidated.

Some 85% of Icon's net revenue is earned from long-term fixed-fee contracts, the company said.

At year-end 2005, the company had 3,050 employees and operations in 41 locations in 27 countries. For 2005, 58.6%, 33.7% and 7.7% of net revenue came from the United States, Europe and the rest of the world, respectively.

Icon shares (Nasdaq: ICLR) gained 53 cents, or 1.1%, to close at $48.39 on Tuesday.

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