Cord Blood America, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CBAI), the umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company (http://www.cordblood-america.com) focused on bringing the life saving potential of stem cells, a biological insurance policy, to families nationwide and internationally, announced today that it has acquired 51 percent of stellacure GmbH, the third largest cord blood banking service in Germany.
"Europe is quickly becoming a global force in the storage of stem cells for future medical use. We believe this acquisition is a perfect example of our business strategy to use acquisitions as part of the process to grow Cord Blood America into a major stem cell storage company globally," said Matthew Schissler, Cord Blood America co-founder and CEO.
stellacure (www.stellacure.com) is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It began storing cord blood for families in 2006 throughout Germany, and within the past year has established sales channels in Spain and Italy. It operates in conjunction with the German Red Cross Bloodservices Baden-Wuerttemberg/Hessen, which has collected cord blood for a public bank since 1996.
"Becoming a 51% stakeholder of one of Europe's most meaningful stem cell banking companies is extremely important for us to carry out our goal of becoming the globally dominant stem cell storage company. We see acquiring a majority stake in stellacure as an important first step to further penetrate other European markets. CBAI is extremely pleased that it was chosen as stellacure's preferred partner to foster further growth of the company and equally excited to establish a long term relationship with the largest blood service unit of the German Red Cross, as we all know a respected name globally," Mr. Schissler said.
The transaction was introduced by specialist life sciences advisory firm CFP BioConnect AG, based in Frankfurt/Germany.