ARTIFICIAL heart valve manufacturer AorTech has successfully completed a #3m fund- raising exercise which will allow it to take a 38% stake in Australian polyurethane developer Elastomedic.

The company, based in East Kilbride, has issued a little more than three million new shares at 98p each, nearly 353,000 of which were taken up via a two-for-11 rights issue, while the remaining shares were placed with institutional investors.

Elastomedic holds the rights to specialised polyurethanes, believed to be highly suitable for heart valve and vein replacement. AorTech is paying around #1.4m for the stake, with leftover funds going towards developing new heart valves and expanding the distribution business.