NEW DIVIDEND POLICY
Waregem (Belgium), 17 October 2008 – Today, Arseus’ Investors’ Day will take place in Brussels. During the presentation, the management will give an update on Arseus’ strategy, which will comprise:
- Confirmation of the objective to achieve a turnover of € 500 million in 2010 through a combination of organic and external growth.
- Increased focus on innovations and own brands.
- A change to the dividend policy.
NEW DIVIDEND POLICY
The Board of Directors of Arseus will propose to the General Meeting of Shareholders of 11 May 2009 to sharply raise the dividend effective from the 2008 financial year. This new dividend policy can be perfectly combined with the execution of Arseus’ buy-and-build strategy.
NEWS BY DIVISION
Arseus Dental has won a European tendering procedure to supply to the University of Amsterdam (ACTA) 248 dental treatment units of A-dec, including a long-term servicecontract.
This order is one of the largest investments in dental care in the Benelux. The first deliveries will take place in December 2009, and the entire project will be completed in 2010. ACTA is internationally one of the leading universities in terms of dentistry research and training.
In October, Arseus Dental will deliver 24 A-dec treatment units to the Hogeschool van Utrecht in the Netherlands.
In Belgium, this year, the dentistry faculty of the university of Ghent was also equipped with treatment units from A-dec. In early 2009, A-dec simulators will be supplied to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Furthermore, for some years now the faculties of Lille, Toulouse, Reims, Nice, Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand (over 60% of the dentistry faculties in France) have been equipped with A-dec treatment units supplied by Arseus Dental.
Arseus Dental is the exclusive distributor of A-dec in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
As from 1 December, Fagron will start distribution operations in the Greek market. This agreement contributes to Fagron’s strategy to further expand its market leadership in pharmaceutical compounding.
Arseus medical has concluded a number of interesting new distribution agreements with Ontex (Incontinence brand ID), Akrus (seats and instrument tables for research and surgery), Clarity Systems (Retcam, a digital widescreen camera system), Konan (specular microscope), Albert Heiss (eye surgery instruments), and Buerki (surgery instruments for the most advanced operation techniques).
Last month, Corilus concluded a number of important contracts and also launched new and innovative software.
- Greenock – 24 September saw the successful launch of Greenock, a state-of-the-art software package, developed in-house, for managing individual and group pharmacies.
- Baltes 2.0 – During the professional dentistry fair (Dentex) in Brussels the renewed version of Baltes will be launched, a software package developed in-house for managing dental surgeries. This new version has a new user interface to make the programme even more intuitive and user-friendly.
- Dolphin – Corilus has obtained the distribution rights of Dolphin Imaging, Dolphin Aquarium and AnywhereDolphin (automation solutions for orthodontists). These products will also be launched at the Dentex.
- Audiqueen and Orhilo – Corilus has obtained the distribution rights of Audiqueen, software for ENT doctors and audiologists. The Orhilo software package is an electronic Medical Dossier (EMD) developed specifically for the ENT sector. Orhilo has a link to the audiology programme Audiqueen.
SHARE BUYBACK
The Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of 7 September 2007 has authorized the Board of Directors to buy back the company’s own shares. This authorization was renewed during the Extraordinary Meeting of Shareholders of 9 June 2008.
In the period between 18 January and 16 October, Arseus bought back a total of 979,358 shares at an average price of € 8.43.
The presentation of the Investors’ Day can be downloaded from www.arseus.com as of 14:30 CET today.
This is a translation of the Dutch press release; the Dutch press release prevails.
For more information:
Constantijn van Rietschoten, Investor Relations Manager
+31 88 33 11 211 (office)
+31 6 536 91 585 (mobile)