ABC.L Regulatory News (ABC)

ABCAM PLC

("Abcam" or "the Company")

Half Year Trading Update

Cambridge, UK: Abcam plc (AIM: ABC), a global leader in the supply of innovative protein research tools, announces the following trading update ahead of its results for the six months ended 31 December 2013.

We expect to report a strong revenue performance in the first half of the year from our core catalogue products business, with underlying growth of approximately 9.3% on a constant currency basis (9.1% on a reported basis). This is pleasing against a backdrop of challenging market conditions, most notably in the US, where protracted budget discussions continued throughout most of the period, punctuated by a Government shutdown.

Whilst the 2014 US budget proposal which was announced last week is relatively favourable, if implemented it will still not completely offset the reductions to central research expenditure made during last year's sequestration. Consequently we remain cautious about the US funding environment in the medium to longer term and any improvement in market conditions generally.

As previously announced, we have revised downwards our revenue expectations for the custom service business. Given the relatively small size of this business unit and our focus on growing revenues from our catalogue, this reduction is not expected to impact materially on Group profitability for the year.

Overall we expect to report total revenue growth in the period (for all products and services) of approximately 8.1% on a constant currency basis (8.1% on a reported basis).

During the half year we have continued the development of our RabMAb® portfolio and have also made notable additions to our non-primary antibody product ranges, revenues from which continue to grow well, and now represent approximately 16% of our total catalogue sales.

We have made good progress on a number of the organic growth initiatives we announced in September 2013. For example, we are pleased to announce the opening of our new office in Shanghai and the unification of our distribution network in China, which will serve the market with locally stored inventory. These arrangements will significantly improve the delivery times and levels of service to our customers and we anticipate that the strengthening of our presence in China will present a number of strategic opportunities, including the building of direct relationships with major companies based in the region.

Continued tight cost control and an increase in the proportion of revenues from our own-manufactured products have led to a further improvement in gross margin over the same period last year.

These are exciting times for Abcam as we continue to focus on driving investment in our business to deliver profitable revenue growth in the medium to long term.

The Company will report its interim results for the period in early March 2014.

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About Abcam plc

Abcam plc is a leading provider of protein research tools and services, with a wide range of products and expert technical support, enabling scientists to analyse living cells at the molecular level to improve the understanding of health and disease.

Abcam is committed to providing scientists with access to the correct reagents and tools for their research. The Company's catalogue currently comprises more than 127,000 products and is continually evolving to meet customer needs. The range offered includes primary and secondary antibodies, proteins, peptides, lysates, biochemicals, immunoassays and other kits. Abcam products are supported with detailed, up-to-date and unbiased data on our website.

Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, Abcam has nine global subsidiary offices and ships to over 100 countries. The Company was founded in 1998 and now employs over 700 people. Abcam is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: ABC).

To find out more, please visit www.abcam.com