The timetable has now been drawn up for the management buy-out to take effect at Andor Technology, the Belfast-based specialist camera maker.

An extraordinary general meeting is being convened for September 24, at which shareholders are expected to agree to the 73p per share offer, which values the company at £22m.

Once that goes through, then

trading in Andor Technology shares will cease on Monday, October 6, and the company will de-list from the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, October 8.

Dealings in Andor shares on the Irish Stock Exchange ceased on Friday, paving the way for a return to private ownership of the company, which is based at Springvale Business Park.

A fortnight ago, the board of Thorndale and the independent directors of Andor said they had reached agreement on the terms of the recommended acquisition.

The new owners of the one-time Queen’s University spin-out company will be a management consortium headed by CEO Conor Walsh, which is operating under the name of Thorndale Trading.

The price of 73p per share represents a considerable premium on the price of 56p at which the shares were trading in July when news of the takeover bid first emerged.

The shares have since rallied and, on Friday, were trading at 70.25p in advance of the buy-out.

In May, the shares were languishing at 46p, well down on the 12-month high price of 112.5p.

Meanwhile Andor hosted a visit by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Tom Hartley, to its “world headquarters” plant at Springvale last week.

A spokesman for the company said: “He was looking for an update on the business, keen to learn about our market position, our products and our highly skilled workforce, including future needs.”

During a tour of the plant, Mr Hartley was given an opportunity to visit the production line and examine some of the hi-tech cameras which are produced at Andor.

He met senior management, including Mr Walsh, founder and technical director Donal Denvir, sales director Aislinn Rice, head of engineering Gary Wilmot and the head of operations, Dennis O’Hara.

The company’s current output is 50 cameras a week but its long term target is to drive this figure up to 500 a week.

Mr Hartley said: “Andor is truly an exemplar, at the cutting edge of technology, an excellent employer providing high-quality jobs for local people and a company that clearly wants to grow.”

Andor employs 190 staff, 120 of them in Belfast, and in May it posted a 22% increase in pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of March.

Last year Andor opened sales offices at Beijing in China and Osaka in Japan, reporting that investments in the Asia Pacific region had produced 34% sales growth.