Rationalisation of facilities

Aortech International PLC 24 May 2002 AORTECH INTERNATIONAL PLC Restructuring and rationalisation of facilities AorTech International plc ('AorTech'), the Scottish-based developer and manufacturer of cardiovascular devices, announces a restructuring and rationalisation programme, which will result in a number of redundancies within the organisation. The Company has signed a Sub-Contract Manufacturing Agreement with Becton Dickinson (BD) for the manufacture of its TruCCOMS System in Singapore and, as a result, there will be approximately 50 employees made redundant from the AorTech site in Scotland. Eddie McDaid, Chairman and Chief Executive said: 'We are reviewing the global operations of the Company in order to improve performance and efficiency and today's announcement reflects the first stage of that process and reflects, in the main, the rationalisation of our TruCCOMS manufacturing which will now be produced under a Sub-Contract Arrangement with Becton Dickinson, in Singapore. As a result we expect that there will be a significant improvement in the performance of our Critical Care business. However, it is regrettable that following the rationalisation a number of our employees will be made redundant. 'We continually look at ways to improve the performance of the Group and these steps were deemed necessary in order to increase our competitiveness. The proposed acquisition of BD's Critical Care Division is continuing to progress and further announcements regarding this matter will be made in due course.' 24 May 2002 ENQUIRIES: AorTech International plc Tel: 01698 746 699 Eddie McDaid, Chief Executive College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020 Michael Padley Clare Warren This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange