Techne Corporation Releases Unaudited Second Quarter Results for Fiscal...( MINNEAPOLIS Jan. 29 /- Techne Cor...)

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Techne Corporation's (Nasdaq: TECH) consolidated net earnings for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 increased 26.7% to $23.6 million or $.60 per diluted share compared with $18.7 million or $.47 per diluted share for the quarter ended December 31, 2006. For the six months ended December 31, 2007, Techne's consolidated net earnings increased 22.0% to $46.7 million or $1.18 per diluted share compared with $38.3 million or $0.97 per diluted share for the six months ended December 31, 2006.

Net earnings as a percentage of net sales improved to 38.9% for the six months ended December 30, 2007 from 36.5% in the first six months of last year. The improvement in net earnings was mainly due to increased consolidated net sales. The favorable impact on consolidated net earnings of the change in exchange rates used to convert R&D Europe results from British pounds to U.S. dollars was $339,000 ($.01 per diluted share) for the quarter and $742,000 ($.02 per diluted share) for the six months ended December 31, 2007.

Consolidated net sales for the quarter and six months ended December 31, 2007 were $62.1 million and $120.1 million, respectively. This was an increase of 18.4% and 14.6% from the quarter and six months ended December 31, 2006, respectively. Consolidated net sales were favorably affected by the strength of the British pound as compared to the U.S. dollar. Excluding the effect of changes in foreign currency exchange rates, consolidated net sales increased 16.5% and 12.6% for the quarter ended and six months ended December 31, 2007, respectively, from the comparable prior year periods.

Biotechnology net sales, which include sales by R&D Systems' Biotechnology Division, R&D S
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