TED Ted Baker Plc

Acquisition 15 December 2004 Tepnel Life Sciences PLC ("Tepnel") completes the acquisition of Diaclone Research SAS Manchester, UK. 15 December 2004�. Tepnel (AIM: TED) announces today that it has completed the acquisition of Diaclone Research SAS ("Diaclone") that was previously announced on 30 July 2004. Under the terms of the agreement, Tepnel has acquired Diaclone Research from OPi SAS for a total consideration of �2.372 million and as of today assumes control of its facilities based in Besan�on, France. Tepnel purchased Diaclone by raising �4.2 million (before expenses) through the placing of 74,477,000 shares at a price of 5.65 pence per share with both existing and new institutional shareholders in the UK and US. Diaclone produces and customises monoclonal antibodies (mABs), complimentary reagents and ELISA test kits. These products are currently sold as research reagents to academic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical research scientists worldwide. Diaclone's capabilities in immunobiology and immunoassay development will additionally support all of Tepnel's existing strategic business units. It is anticipated that the menu of capabilities offered to large pharmaceutical customers through Tepnel's TSS group located in Scotland will be significantly enhanced by the inclusion of custom therapeutic antibody development services and protein purification and characterisation services. Ben Matzilevich, Chief Executive Officer commented: "The acquisition of Diaclone Research marks the next stage in our strategic corporate development and significantly enhances the further expansion of our molecular diagnostic product offering in USA, Europe, and the Far East. Diaclone Research will provide us with the potential to develop the necessary mABs for diagnostic kits for predicting and identifying a number of factors associated with organ transplantation and rejection and autoimmune diseases. The acquisition of Diaclone with its existing catalogue products and exceptional antibody development capabilities is expected to have a positive impact on Tepnel's revenues and earnings in 2005 and beyond." For Further Information: Tepnel Life Sciences plc Ben Matzilevich, CEO Gron Ffoulkes-Davies, Finance Director 0161 946 2200 Seymour Pierce Mark Percy, Corporate Finance 0207 107 8000 De Facto Communications Helena Podd 020 7940 1000 Notes to Editors About Tepnel Life Sciences plc Tepnel is a UK-based international life sciences instrumentation and services company with a `tri-polar' strategy focused on providing the biomedical industry with high-throughput automated DNA purification systems, manual DNA purification kits and reagents, as well as scientific services for nucleic acid purification, drug analysis, genotyping and genetically modified foods. Tepnel was founded in 1992 to exploit DNA technology generated at UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) and is quoted on the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: TED). More information on Tepnel can be found at www.tepnel.com. END

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