Stmnt re Gensel

Genus PLC 11 October 2001 11 October 2001 Genus plc Over the last two years Genus plc, the world's largest cattle breeding company, has invested £1.8m in Gensel, the Canadian publicly quoted biotechnology company, and now owns 23% of its stock. The investment was made in return for commercialisation rights in cattle to the patented technology in semen sexing Gensel had begun developing. The Genus investment has been used by Gensel to fund the research programme aimed at developing the technology. Genus announced on 23rd August 2001 its intention to make provisions against this investment in its interim accounts for the half year ending 30th September 2001 following a sharp fall in Gensel's share price over the last few months and this investment has now been written off. Gensel has just announced its intention to close operations following the failure of a fund raising in Canada and the USA, citing the currently poor market sentiment for technological investment as the reason for the forced closure. Having already invested a considerable sum in Gensel, the Board of Genus made the decision not to invest further in the business. The closure of Gensel's operations means that the research programme, which has been running for nearly four years, will cease at the end of October. This will be before the technology has been developed into a commercially viable product. Gensel's prime business objective was the development of its patented technology for sexing semen in bulk quantities which is still in the research stage. Although a competitive technology is available for performing the separation of small quantities of semen, this can handle only thousands of doses of semen per year whereas Genus sells more than eight million doses of semen per year. Genus recognises the commercial importance of developing semen sexing technology and will be searching for another route for handling bulk quantities. For further information: Genus Tel: + 44 (0)1270 536 500 Richard Wood, Chief Executive Philip Acton, Finance Director Buchanan Communications Tel: + 44 (0)20 7466 5000 Charles Ryland Catherine Miles