Investors

Preliminary Results - Return to Full Year Profitability

LONDON, UK, 24 November 2010 - Optos plc (LSE: OPTS), a leading medical retinal imaging company, today announces its preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2010. The results are denominated in $US which is the Company's reporting currency.

Financial Highlights


Total revenue	$106.3m	$97.2m
Operating lease revenues from rental of devices	$89.0m	$93.5m
Device sales under finance leases	$7.7m	-
Device sales - outright	$8.1m	$2.5m
Service & warranty revenues	$1.5m	$1.2m
Operating profit	$17.5m	$2.2m
Profit/(loss) before tax	$12.7m	($3.8m)
Profit/(loss) after tax	$14.0m	($4.3m)
EPS (diluted) - cents	19.9c	(6.1)c
Cash flow from operating activities	$46.4m	$37.4m
Operating cash flow per share (diluted) - cents	66.2c	53.8c
Free cash flow/revenues	26%	19%
Net debt (cash less lease finance liabilities)	($21.1m)	($46.2m)

Business Highlights

Financial performance ahead of expectations
− Revenues up 9% or $9.1m to $106.3m
− Includes revenues of $7.7m from device sales under finance leases
Strong improvement in profitability to $12.7m ( FY09: $3.8m loss after $6.3m exceptional items)
− Gross margins improved from 61% to 67%
− Operating margins increased to 16% (FY09: 9% pre-exceptional items)
Significant increase in cash generation, reducing net debt to $21.1m
− Operating cash flow up 24% or $9.0m to $46.4m, free cash flow up $9.7m to $27.7m
− Cash flow not impacted by accounting treatment of rental contracts
Good impact from new business models and asset utilisation
−     Future cash flow secured increased by $20m to $180m
−     Total installed base increased by 115 to 3,912 (3,542 operating leases, 88 finance leases and 282 outright device sales)
−     Average monthly optomaps per site up 5% to 110 (FY09:105)
New product lines and distribution network to support future growth
−     200Dx and 200Tx from internal development, now being launched
−     Accutome distribution agreement adds three new hand held ophthalmic devices
−     Proposed acquisition of Opto Global adds new products and an extensive international distribution network

The CEO of Optos, Roy Davis, commented: "In the last financial year, we have delivered a solid improvement in revenues, returned to a healthy profit and generated very strong cash flows. We have also made good operational progress, and expanded our product portfolio through internal development and acquisition. The launch of our next generation 200Dx and 200Tx products in the coming months and the marketing of our newly acquired products from Accutome and Opto Global leaves us confident that we can continue to drive sales in the current financial year.

"With good revenue visibility and an improving product portfolio being marketed by a focused salesforce, we are confident that Optos can continue to deliver growth and become a leading supplier of device solutions to the optometry and ophthalmology communities."

Enquiries

Optos plc Roy Davis, CEO Christine Soden, CFO	Tel: 01383 843 300
FD Ben Atwell / Mo Noonan	Tel: 020 7831 3113

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