Ekf Diagnostics Regulatory News (EKF)

27 January 2014

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

("EKF" or the "Company")

Year end trading update

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the point-of-care diagnostics business, provides the following trading update for the financial year ended 31 December 2013.

EKF traded well in 2013 with unaudited revenues for the full year of approximately £31.8m, an increase of over 21% on the previous year (2012: £26.1m). The Company has seen sustained revenue growth throughout the period with strong revenue growth in the second half of the year, which showed a 13% increase on the first half (£16.9m vs. £14.9m).

Adjusted EBITDA for the period is expected to be in line with consensus expectation, being an increase of over 40% on the previous year (2012: £3.2m). This strong performance in adjusted EBITDA reflects both the increased profits generated on higher sales as well as the continued solid control of administrative expenses throughout the Group.

The cash position of the Company remains strong, with cash balances as at 31 December 2013 of £2.55m (2012: £4.33m), reflecting the deferred consideration payments to the vendors of Quotient Diagnostics Ltd and Stanbio Inc made in the first half of the year, an increase in trade debtors as a result of the high levels of sales in December, and investment in EKF Molecular Diagnostics.

For the second year in a row, sales of higher margin reagents, particularly Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) have continued to perform strongly, resulting in our market share of these important cash generative products being held. Alere has continued to drive the HemoPoint H2 sales in the US and we are continuing to grow our market share as we see higher levels of pull-though of cuvette sales on an ever increasing installed device base. The Company has also seen significant growth across all of the major product ranges; Biosen instrument sales have grown by 75% and Quo-Lab and Quotest sales have grown by 74%.

Sales growth in the Americas continued to be strong (over 28%) despite the negative impact of the dollar exchange rate and the fact that a significant potential tender win expected to conclude before the year end has been delayed until H1 2014. Additionally, as recently announced, the advances made within EKF Molecular with Pointman leads to a very positive outlook.

Julian Baines, CEO of EKF commented: "I am once again delighted with the strong performance of the business this year. The increased revenues and adjusted EBITDA over last year is a reflection of all the hard work which the team put in during both 2012 and 2013 in integrating the businesses following our healthy acquisition strategy in 2010 and 2011. Focussing on driving product sales and streamlining processes throughout the Group has reaped rewards across the organisation, both financially and structurally. Finally, we have seen significant advances in EKF Molecular and I am looking forward to continued solid growth in 2014. "

The Company will confirm the date for the announcement of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2013 in due course.

About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc - www.ekfdiagnostics.com

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc was formed in July 2010 following the acquisition of EKF-diagnostic GmbH for €14.32m and refocused its strategy to one of building a substantial point of care diagnostics business. As part of this strategy, the Group has integrated three further acquisitions, Quotient Diagnostics Limited (acquired in October 2010), Argutus Medical Limited (acquired in December 2010) and Stanbio Laboratory L.P. (acquired in June 2011). In 2013 EKF established a new subsidiary, EKF Molecular Diagnostics Ltd, to focus on molecular and companion diagnostics and acquired 360 Genomics Ltd, a business that owns diagnostics technologies for cancer gene detection.

The Company, with its head office in Cardiff and operations in London, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ireland and the US, is a leading diagnostics business, focussing on the development, production and distribution of chemical reagents and analysers for the testing of Glucose, Lactate, Haemoglobin, Haematocrit and HbA1c.

In May 2011 EKF entered into a distribution agreement with Alere Inc ("Alere"), a global diagnostics company, under which Alere was appointed the exclusive distributor of EKF's CLIA waived Hemo Control device and cuvettes in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. The device is distributed in the US under the name HemoPoint H2.