This announcement contains inside information
for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of UK law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR")
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc
("EKF", the "Company" or the "Group")
Trading update &
Significant expansion of supply agreement for COVID-19 sample collection kits
Private sector partnership with EKF for global staff testing programme
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM-listed point-of-care business, announces that it has signed a new multi-million dollar global supply contract with its partner from the private sector. The original agreement with this partner, announced on 5 August 2020, covered the supply of COVID-19 sample collection kits to be used as part of a staff testing programme for the UK only. The original contract commenced with an initial order worth £3m for the UK, and the Company has received additional orders approaching a further £3m to support the planned global expansion of the contract.
Under this new multiyear global supply contract, EKF will now support its partner's world-wide staff testing initiative, with orders being fulfilled from EKF's production sites in the UK, Germany and the United States. The Company expects orders from the expanded agreement to reflect EKF's increased contribution to their partner's global testing programme, and therefore this agreement is expected to facilitate future orders which will contribute materially to 2021 performance and beyond. The contract has an initial term of two years after which it renews automatically on a monthly basis.
EKF is supporting its partner's global staff testing initiative, which aims to offer free, regular COVID-19 testing to its frontline workforce across all of the many geographies in which it operates. The programme is designed to identify asymptomatic carriers who would not have been tested through national testing services, to detect the virus earlier before it spreads.
Further to the announcement on 12 January 2021, trading in the first quarter was materially ahead of management expectations. With subsequent orders under this expanded global contract expected to make a considerable contribution throughout the current financial year and beyond, the Board is confident that trading for the year ending 31 December 2021 will be significantly ahead of already upgraded management expectations.
Julian Baines, CEO of EKF, said: "We are delighted to continue our relationship with our partner in the private sector and support their global staff testing initiative with the expansion of our supply agreement for collection kits. The contract has gone from covering the UK to supporting our partner's global staff testing programme. We expect this partnership to contribute materially to our 2021 performance and are confident in delivering results significantly ahead of current management forecasts which were most recently upgraded in January this year."
The persons responsible for arranging the release of this Announcement on behalf of the Company
are Julian Baines, CEO, and Richard Evans, FD and COO respectively.
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc |
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Christopher Mills, Non-executive Chairman |
Tel: +44 (0) 29 2071 0570 |
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Julian Baines, CEO |
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Richard Evans, FD & COO |
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N+1 Singer |
Tel: 020 7496 3000 |
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Aubrey Powell / George Tzimas / Tom Salvesen |
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Walbrook PR Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8780 or ekf@walbrookpr.com |
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Paul McManus / Lianne Cawthorne |
Mob: +44 (0) 7980 541 893 / +44 (0) 7584 391 303 |
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About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (www.ekfdiagnostics.com)
EKF is a leading point-of-care diagnostics and central laboratory assay manufacturer with an estimated 80,000 hemoglobin, hematocrit, HbA1c, glucose and lactate analysers in regular use across more than 100 countries. EKF specialises in developing tests for use in anemia and diabetes diagnosis and management, as well as providing a portfolio of reagents for use in clinical chemistry analysers.
EKF specialises in the development, production and worldwide distribution of point-of-care analyzers and clinical chemistry reagents for use in hospital and research laboratories, doctor's offices, blood banks and for in-field anaemia screening programmes. EKF is also a bulk manufacturer of enzymes and has custom manufacturing facilities in the USA for a variety of life science products.