Meridian Diagnostics Inc. announced last week that it hascompleted a public offering of $10 million in convertiblesubordinated debentures due in the year 2001. All of thedebentures were sold in an offering underwritten by The OhioCo. and Roney & Co.

The net proceeds of the offering are estimated to be about $9.3million.

The company (NASDAQ:KITS) has granted the underwriters a30-day option to purchase up to $1.5 million principal amountof additional debentures to cover overallotments.

Meridian of Cincinnati, Ohio, intends to use part of the proceedsto repay the debt it incurred when it acquired the MonoSpotand Monolert product lines from Ortho Diagnostic Systems Inc.,a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Meridian develops,manufactures and markets a variety of immunodiagnostic testkits, purified reagents such as antigens and monoclonal andpolyclonal antibodies and related diagnostics. -- Jennifer VanBrunt

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