The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, January 22, 2010

Article Excerpt

MDS INC., $8.30, Toronto symbol MDS, hopes to complete the sale of its MDS Analytical Technologies business by the end of January. This division makes mass spectrometers that detect and measure substances in blood and other patient samples. The sale will generate $650 million for MDS (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). It will use $400 million to $450 million of these funds to buy back shares. MDS is still looking to sell its pharma-services division, which conducts contract-drug research for pharmaceutical companies. When it does sell, MDS will probably use the proceeds for more share buybacks. Once it completes these sales, MDS will focus on its MDS Nordion division, which supplies medical isotopes for cancer detection and research. However, this division continues to lose money. That’s because the Chalk River nuclear reactor near Ottawa, which supplies MDS with medical isotopes, has been shut down for repairs since May 2009. Isotope production should resume in April. In the…