Released: Tuesday 15th March 2011

REVENUES EXCEED £100 MILLION & MAIDEN DIVIDEND ANNOUNCED

Dundee, Scotland, 15 March 2011. Axis-Shield plc (LSE: ASD, OSE: ASD) ("Axis-Shield", the "Company" or the "Group"), the international and innovative in vitro diagnostics company, today announces its unaudited preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2010.

Financial Highlights

Revenues increased  by 5.1% to £101.7 million (2009: £96.7 million)

Revenues from Axis-Shield products increased by 9.0%* to £71.0 million (2009: £65.1 million)

Underlying profit before tax of £7.1 million (2009: £8.1 million), slightly reduced by the acceleration of Afinion™ commercialisation in March 2010

Statutory profit before tax of £7.5 million (2009: £11.0 million, which included £3.1 million in unrealised currency and disposal gains)

Underlying EBITDA £13.8 million (2009: £15.7 million)

Underlying EPS 10.45p (2009: 12.60p)  and basic EPS 11.03p (2009: 16.53p)

Net debt £9.4 million (2009: £4.9 million) despite expenditure of £9.7 million on acquisitions as cash generated from operations increased to £13.2million (2009: £7.9 million)

Maiden dividend of 1p per share proposed

Operating Highlights 

Point-of-Care Division revenues increased by 15.5% to £49.2 million (2009: £42.6 million)

46% increase in the Afinion™ installed base to 9,600 by year-end

Afinion™ revenues increased by 52.7% to £22.6 million (2009: £14.8 million)

Afinion™ menu extension programme on track

4,000 new NycoCard^® instrument placements in 2010, global installed base in excess of 40,000 units

NycoCard^® revenues down 5.7% to £21.6 million (2009: £22.9 million)

Laboratory Division revenues £21.7 million (2009: £22.5 million**)

Acquisition of Catch Inc's homocysteine business significantly increases homocysteine franchise in clinical chemistry going forward

Novel marker programme continues to attract interest from global laboratory instrument providers

Total HbA1c testing franchise increased by 32.1% to £22.6 million (2009: £17.1 million)

*Adjusted for the disposal of Plasmatec and excluding third party distributed products
** After adjustment for Plasmatec disposal

Commenting on the Preliminary Results, Ian Gilham, Chief Executive of Axis-Shield, said: 

"This was a landmark year for the Group with revenues exceeding £100 million for the first time, Afinion™ revenues increasing by more than 50% and the declaration of a maiden dividend. We look forward to the year ahead with optimism as Axis-Shield's core businesses remain strong and well positioned for growth."

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About Axis-Shield

Axis-Shield is an international and innovative in vitro diagnostics company, headquartered in Dundee with R&D and manufacturing bases in Dundee and Oslo.  The Group specialises in the supply of instruments and tests for the rapidly growing physician's office testing market and the development, manufacture and marketing of innovative proprietary diagnostics kits in areas of clinical need, including cardiovascular and neurological diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes.  For more information on Axis-Shield, please refer to www.axis-shield.com