Second Interim Dividend

18 March 2010

SYNERGY HEALTH PLC

("Synergy", "the Company" or "the Group")

"Pre-close" Trading Update and Second Interim Dividend

Synergy (SYR.L), a leading provider of specialist outsourced support services to health related markets in the UK, the Rest of Europe, Asia and South Africa, is pleased to provide an update on trading prior to the release of its preliminary results on 3 June 2010, which are expected to be in line with the board's expectations. Synergy was due to announce its pre-close trading update on 14 April. However, because the board has decided to pay a second interim dividend, that announcement has been brought forward.

The business has continued to perform in line with the trends reported in Q3. 

In the UK we are pleased to report that our Decontamination business has achieved financial close with University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and should reach financial close with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust shortly. In addition we have won another Primary Care decontamination contract in the Midlands, which will start early in the new financial year.

In the Rest of Europe our Sterilisation business has won a £0.7 million new contract with a large US medical device manufacturer for gamma services in Ireland and the Netherlands. 

In Asia, our slower growth in Malaysia and Thailand continues to reflect the downturn in the US medical device market. However, we continue to make progress in China, where our Suzhou decontamination and sterilisation facility has achieved ISO13485 and ISO 9001 certification, the first decontamination facility in China to be certified to international quality standards. The facility is now processing surgical instruments for five hospitals and we are actively marketing to other hospitals in the Suzhou area that will enable the capacity to be filled. We are also in advanced discussions with three hospital groups for additional facilities and we will provide a further update when we release the preliminary results.

Cash generation across the Group continues to be robust and our balance sheet remains strong.

The Board intends to pay a second interim dividend of 8.3p per share (2009: final dividend of 6.8p) on 1 April 2010 to shareholders on the register on 26 March 2010. The second interim dividend is in lieu of a final dividend and gives a total dividend for the year of 13.2p (2009: 11.0p). This increase of 20% reflects the board's confidence in the future.

We look forward to reporting our results on 3 June 2010.

Enquiries: