Inion Oyj - Company Announcement

Inion completes cooperation negotiations in Finland

Inion Oy

(“Inion or the “Company”)

 

Inion completes cooperation negotiations in Finland

 

Tampere, Finland and Guildford, UK. 22 January 2009, Inion (LSE: IIN.L), a
company focused on the development and commercialisation of novel biodegradable
medical implants, has completed cooperation negotiations with employees based
in Tampere, Finland resulting in the loss of 15 jobs across manufacturing, R&D,
quality control and marketing. As part of the process a number of jobs were
also transferred into Inion's commercial team, strengthening its customer
interface. 

 

Inion initiated cooperation talks with its employees in November 2008 as part
of an ongoing process to streamline the business and reduce costs while it
evaluates its re-financing options. Cooperation negotiations are required under
Finnish law prior to making any decisions on possible workforce reduction. This
process resembles the ‘fair consultation' required from UK employers in a
similar situation. 

 

The redundancies will create approximately €500,000 of cost savings for Inion
during 2009 and €640,000 on an annualised basis thereafter. The total cost of
redundancies is expected to be approximately €70,000. 

 

Chris Lee, Inion's CEO, said, “The result of cooperation talks has
unfortunately but necessarily resulted in a number of redundancies at our
facility in Finland. However, we remain totally committed to accelerating our
business growth in our core business areas, based on our commercial goal of
making Inion products the first choice for surgeons.” 

 

-ends-

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Inion Oy 

Chris Lee, Chief Executive Officer

Julien Cotta, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: +44 (0)1483 685390

 

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Mark Swallow / Helena Galilee / David Dible  

Tel: +44 (0)207 638 9571

 

About Inion (www.inion.com)

 

Inion Oy is a medical devices company focused on the development and successful
commercialisation of innovative and unique biodegradable and bioactive surgical
implants in selected high value orthopaedic market segments. 

 

Inion's core expertise and technology lies in the design and manufacture of
innovative biodegradable plates, screws, pins and membranes, which are used to
enhance the healing of bone or soft tissue injuries to the skeleton, such as
those caused by trauma or by reconstructive surgery. Inion implants are made
from its proprietary Inion family of biomaterials, with properties tailored for
specific surgical applications, in terms of strength, flexibility and rate of
degradation 

 

Inion is also focused on developing proprietary new bioactive and biodegradable
biomaterials that promote bone healing and accelerate patient rehabilitation. 

 

Inion was incorporated in early 2000 and listed on the Official List of the UK
Listing Authority in December 2004 (ticker: IIN). The Company has offices in
the UK and US, and its head office, R&D and production facilities are in
Tampere, Finland. 

 

This announcement includes "forward-looking statements" which include all
statements other than statements of historical facts, including, without
limitation, those regarding the Group's financial position, business strategy,
plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development
plans and objectives relating to the Group's products), and any statements
preceded by, followed by or that include forward-looking terminology such as
the words "targets", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "aims", "intends",
"will", "can", "may", "anticipates", "would", "should", "could" or similar
expressions or the negative thereof. Such forward-looking statements involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond the
Group's control that could cause the actual results, performance or
achievements of the Group to be materially different from future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions
regarding the Group's present and future business strategies and the
environment in which the Group will operate in the future. Among the important
factors that could cause the Group's actual results, performance or
achievements to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements
include those relating to Inion's funding requirements, regulatory approvals,
reliance on third parties, intellectual property, key personnel and other
factors. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this
announcement. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to
disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements
contained in this announcement to reflect any change in the Group's
expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or
circumstances on which any such statements are based. As a result of these
factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking
statement.