08 September 2020

Chairman’s AGM Statement 2020

Oxford Instruments plc, a leading provider of high technology products and services to industrial companies and scientific research communities, is holding its Annual General Meeting today at which the Chairman, Neil Carson, will make the following statement on trading:

The coronavirus has continued to have an impact on trading in the first five months of the year, with cumulative revenue down 2% against last year. Revenue has been supported by a strong uplift in shipments of our compound semiconductor process solutions and installations of cryogenic and magnet systems, in addition to the carry-over of systems that we were unable to ship or install in the final weeks of the last financial year due to the closure of customer sites and travel restrictions. This has partially offset lower revenue to academic markets for our scientific cameras, microscopy products and electron analysers, due to continued disruption across these customers.

Although there remains considerable uncertainty as to the future impact and longevity of covid-19 disruption, we have seen modest order growth over the first five months of trading and a good improvement in the order book. Strong order growth across commercial customers, particularly from our compound semiconductor process solutions, has offset a small decline in orders from academic customers, where we are seeing a slower rate of recovery.

The Group’s robust trading performance and focus on protecting its strong balance sheet has resulted in an improvement in net cash to £70.0m as at 7 September 2020 (31 March 2020: £67.5m), in accord with normal seasonal trading patterns.

Oxford Instruments’ results for the half-year ended 30 September 2020 will be released on 10 November 2020.