One of Sussex's most successful new businesses has been sold for a staggering £6.5 million.

The deal saw Brighton-based biotechnology firm Genpak Ltd merge with Genetix Group PLC on Friday.

Together the two companies are expected to be valued at up to £100 million when they are floated on the stock exchange at the end of the month.

Genpak's managing director Julian Burke said: "I am over the moon. It has been a long-term objective of mine to float the company on the stock market and the ongoing consolidation in the genetics industry means this is a good time to merge and get an influx of money to develop the business.

"We will use this money to increase our sales and acquire new technologies."

Genpak was founded in a garden shed in 1993 by Dr Burke.

Now firmly established at the Sussex Innovation Centre, Genpak specialises in the development and supply of high quality reagents and equipment for use in DNA analysis.

In the past year the company has used its DNA testing kits to help Sussex Police identify rape suspects. Other users of Genpak technology include most of the main molecular genetics institutes, uni-versities and hi-tech companies in the UK, Europe and the Far East.

The company has doubled its turnover every year since 1997.

Dr Burke believes Genpak and Genetix will make an ideal business team.

He said: "They specialise in machinery and eng-ineering whereas most of our work is on the reagents and chemicals used in those machines."

Mike Herd, director of the Sussex Innovation Centre welcomed Genpak's success.

He said: "It is great to see one of our companies achieving such success."