Disposal of holding in Oxford Diffraction Limited

Oxford Instruments plc (“Oxford Instruments”), the high technology tools and systems company, today announces the disposal of its 23% holding in Oxford Diffraction Limited (“Oxford Diffraction") to Varian, Inc. for a cash consideration of £3.5m. An additional cash amount of up to £1.1m may be received over the next three years conditional on the performance of Oxford Diffraction. The cash will be used to reduce Oxford Instruments’ debt.

Oxford Diffraction, based in Abingdon, near Oxford in the UK, was spun out of Oxford Instruments plc in March 2001 in order to develop, manufacture and supply analytical instrumentation for X-ray crystallography.  As this technique was not core to Oxford Instruments it was decided to develop it as an independent company using outside capital and resources.

Oxford Instruments has treated its holding in Oxford Diffraction Limited as an investment, the carrying value of which was £0.3m at 30 September 2007.   This disposal will result in a non-recurring profit, before costs, of approximately £3.2m on the initial consideration of £3.5m.

Enquiries:

Oxford Instruments plc                    Tel:  01865 393 200
Jonathan Flint  Chief Executive 
Kevin Boyd Group Finance Director

Hogarth Partnership                         Tel:  020 7357 9477
Rachel Hirst
Andrew Jaques
Ian Payne