of doing business right…
15 years
abcam plc 
annual report and accounts 2013
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 15 reasons 
our future is 
looking bright 
our vision is to be the world’s leading 
supplier of life science research tools
 
we live in a golden age of biology where almost daily enormous breakthroughs 
are being made in mankind’ s understanding of how cells operate in health 
and disease these breakthroughs are possible owing to the rapid growth in 
understanding at a molecular level of the role of proteins expressed by genes
over the last 15 years abcam has remained committed to supporting scientists 
on their quest for discovery we’ve focused on continually improving our 
highquality products and services by improving our global delivery times 
enhancing our customer service offering and increasing the validation information 
of our products we’ve also expanded our product range beyond primary 
antibodies to include secondaries proteins and peptides lysates biochemicals 
immunoassays and other kits as well as expanding our capabilities and services
throughout 2013 we worked hard to prioritise growth opportunities to 
ensure that our success continues we will focus on our core business 
as well as looking to extend our product offerings capabilities and services 
helping scientists to discover more
access this report online 
wwwabcamplccomreports with our 2013 annual report 
we celebrate 15 years of abcam’s 
continual drive for discovery
abcam’s success over the past 15 years 
reflects the strength of our vision to become 
the leading supplier of life science research 
tools our people and our drive to succeed 
support our mission of enabling scientists 
to discover more our global team always 
strives to offer the best products and services 
to our customers 
with three acquisitions over the previous 
two years abcam has worked hard on ma 
integration as well as delivering business 
as usual this ensures our customers benefit 
from both existing and new product additions 
as well as extended capabilities and 
service offerings
despite continued pressure on research 
budgets abcam has continued to produce 
strong growth i am excited about the future 
and what abcam can achieve
mike redmond
chairman
overview
 2 abcam in brief 
 4 our business
 6 our people
 8 our history
 10 chairmans statement
strategic review
 11  chief executive officer’s 
review
 12 the strategic plan 
performance review 
 20 financial review 
 25  principal risks and 
uncertainties
 28  corporate social 
responsibility
corporate governance
 31 message from the chairman
 32 board of directors
 34 executive management team
 36 general managers
 37  corporate gover nance 
statement
 40 audit committee
 41 nomination committee
 42  dir ectors’ r emuneration 
report
 50 other disclosures
 52  statement of directors’ 
responsibilities
financial statements
 54 independent auditor’s report
 55  consolidated income 
statement 
 56  reconciliation of adjusted 
financial measures
   consolidated statement 
of comprehensive income
 57 balance sheets
 58  consolidated statement 
of changes in equity
 59  company statement 
of changes in equity
 60  cash flow statements
 61  notes to the 
financial statements
ibc corporate directory
  shareholder information
throughout this report we have 
highlighted 15 areas we believe 
set us apart from the rest and are 
crucial to the ongoing success of 
our business
start turning the pages 
to discover more 
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
1 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 abcam in brief
revenue
£1222m
adjusted operating profit
£465m
adjusted diluted earnings per share
1757p
cash and term deposits
£383m
a performance that demonstrates 
continued progress
1—
abcam is a supplier of life science research tools 
with an unrivalled range of products and expert 
technical support enabling scientists to analyse 
living cells at the molecular level and improving 
the understanding of health and disease
in 201213
  revenue increased by 249 to £1222m 
2012 £978m
  adjusted diluted earnings per share 
increased by 127 to 1757p 
2012 1559p
  adjusted operating profit increased 
by 206 to £465m 2012 £386m
  closing cash and term deposits increased 
by 119 to £383m 2012 £175m
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 2 our ongoing commitment 
to discover more
‘discover more’ is the promise at the core 
of our business it reflects researchers’ 
quest for knowledge as well as our 
ongoing commitment to supporting 
their search in the fullest way possible
2—
a leading web presence and 
innovation in digital channels
we achieved 9999 uptime on the 
website during 201213 and customer 
satisfaction was consistently rated over 
85 for new website functionality 
via the website exit survey
3—
our global sites
 abcamcom
 abcamcojp
 abcamcn
what this means for us
  we have a catalogue of over 
120000 highquality products 
to meet scientists’ needs
  we have added more than 21500 product 
data features including references 
images applications and species 
reactivity during 201213
growth in number of products  
in the past five years
276
yearonyear increase in organic search 
traffic to the wwwabcamcom website
20
catalogue size over 15 years
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 3 our business
we develop and manufacture our own 
products as well as externally sourcing 
highquality products combining this 
model with inhouse testing as well as 
supporting products with informationrich 
datasheets enables scientists and 
researchers to discover more
expert technical support
we promise guaranteed product quality and provide 
customer support in six languages investment 
in callsharing phone systems enables us to extend 
customer service times in our main markets
the best catalogue 
of products and services
by november 2012 we reached an important milestone 
of 100000 products on our catalogue by the end of 
june 2013 we reached more than 120000
the most uptodate 
and honest data
we continually strive to improve our informationrich 
product datasheets by adding helpful and relevant 
scientific data to help scientists make informed 
product decisions
rapid global delivery
we are always working to improve our global 
distribution network and meet local customer 
needs we deliver to more than 100 countries 
with nextday delivery in most regions
5—
4—
6—
7—
a business model shaped by 
three main areas of focus
8—
our customers are predominantly research 
scientists requiring high performance products 
with detailed technical specifications within 
the academic community we continue to 
improve our informationrich datasheets with 
scientifically relevant and helpful content 
making it easily accessible for our customers
customer feedback
friendly and helpful customer service and technical 
scientific support is always our top priority we believe 
that honesty is the best policy and we encourage our 
customers to share their experiences through satisfaction 
surveys this feedback is used to improve products 
update product datasheets improve service levels and 
help other customers make informed product decisions
fast delivery
through our bonded warehouse in beijing partnering 
with a local distributor in brazil and establishing a 
unified distribution network following our acquisitions 
we have improved delivery times to ensure we meet 
the needs of our customers worldwide
 customers
935
of customers rate the quality of ordering support 
and speed of delivery as good or excellent
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 4 our people are our biggest asset and the 
success of abcam to date has been down 
to exceptional teamwork and a shared 
passion for providing the best products 
and services to our customers
we have over 100 inhouse phds and our people 
offer both scientific knowledge and key business 
skills to ensure the global business runs efficiently 
with customer needs at the heart of what we do 
we also work closely with a network of local 
distributors in order to service local needs 
scientific expertise
in addition to our own team we collaborate with a large 
number of industry leading scientists this enables us 
to be at the cutting edge of science and to provide the 
necessary tools for our customers we have an established 
series of global scientific events and webinars and our 
chairs and invited speakers are leaders in their field 
we provide forums for scientists to network and present 
their work and our events provide an environment for 
us to speak to our customers and understand their 
challenges and requirements in the laboratory
 worldwide service products
we are committed to providing scientists 
access to the right reagents and services 
for their research our catalogue evolves 
with industry trends and has expanded 
yearonyear 
we manufacture our own products in five specialist facilities 
around the globe as well as sourcing from over 400 oem 
partners our diverse supplier base enables us to source 
the highest quality research tools for customers
our products
  primary antibodies 
including rabmabs
®
 
rabbit monoclonal 
antibodies
  secondary antibodies
  functional assays elisa 
and other kits
  biochemicals
  proteins and peptides
  l ysates
every abcam product is supported with detailed 
up to date and unbiased data
our capabilities and services
  custom antibody development and manufacture
  custom bulk custom formulation assay development 
packaging labelling and applications testing
  iso good manufacturing practice gmp
700
employees across eight 
offices worldwide
120000
highquality products
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 5 94
staff participation 
from the last global 
staff survey
top 5
friendly fun driven 
open ambitious
words used in our 
staff survey to 
describe abcam 
did you 
know
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 6
9—
passionate 
people across 
the globe…
our expanding team work closely 
together across the globe making 
abcam what it is today the mix 
of different cultures personalities 
backgrounds experiences and skills 
at abcam enables us to achieve great 
things our people always strive to 
make improvements in order to be 
the best and help abcam achieve 
continued growth
our global presence
our team works together across 
eight offices globally to deliver the 
best customer service and the 
highest quality products
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
our people overview
25
our employees 
come from over 
25 countries 
making up a 
strong team of 
700 people
250
employees helped 
raise money for 
charities in 201213 
and we donated to 
64 charities nominated 
by staff members
2400
mollies drawn 
by our inhouse 
design team 
to date
7 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
financial statements
…who bring our 
business to life
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
25
our employees 
come from over 
25 countries 
making up a 
strong team of 
700 people
financial statements corporate governance performance review strategic review our history
2000
tenth 
employee 
hired
1998
founded on 
a vision
the largest 
catalogue of the 
best antibodies 
in the world
2003
boston office opened
2009
hong kong office opened
2010
300th employee hired
a rich history of 
successful growth
10—
2005
abcam listed 
on the london 
stock exchange’s 
aim market
revenue growth
100
80
60
40
20
9899 0001 0708 0203 0910 0405 1112 9900 0607 0102 0809 0304 1011 0506 1213
120
140
0
year
revenue £m
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 8 2013
rabmabs
®
 available 
in most territories 
worldwide 
and we’ve been 
doing business 
right for more than 
15 years
2006
japan office opened and 
abcam reaches a catalogue 
of more than 20000 products
2008
abcam’s tenth anniversary 
celebrating its 200th employee 
and more than 45000 products
2011
acquired ascent scientific 
and mitosciences
2012
acquired epitomics and 
abcam reaches 100000 
products on the catalogue
what’s next
in this golden age of biology we are well positioned to 
drive growth and we aspire to be the researcher’s most 
recommended source for products we aim to focus on 
growing our core business within protein research as well 
as expanding into geographies with good growth potential
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
9 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 chairman’s statement
we have a strong business model 
which has been bolstered by the 
addition of the rabmab
®
 technology 
i am pleased to report on another 
successful year for abcam
the year to 30 june 2013 was a 
transformational one for abcam in that 
it included the first full year contributions 
from our acquisitions in the 2012 financial 
year of epitomics and ascent scientific 
which contributed to our 249 reported 
revenue growth to £1222m
we have frequently cautioned that we 
expected western markets to remain 
challenging during the year as governments 
address fiscal deficits that was certainly the 
case particularly in the us which represents 
our largest market despite this we achieved 
underlying constant currency revenue growth 
as defined in the ceo review of an estimated 
118 and adjusted operating profit of 
£465m before costs incurred during the 
year of £33m relating to the amortisation 
of the intangible assets arising on acquisitions 
and £04m of oneoff integration costs
the breadth and depth of our online 
catalogue are important business drivers 
and the enhancement of our product ranges 
has continued apace we added a record 
29102 products to our catalogue during 
the year which at 30 june 2013 comprised 
121558 products by volume the main 
contributor to this growth has been our 
oem supplier base but we have also 
exceeded our targets on new product 
additions including rabmabs
®
 from 
our own production facilities
our geographical expansion has also 
continued and we have achieved deeper 
penetration in europe for example through 
the successful switch to inhouse channels 
of revenues that were previously generated 
by epitomics through third party distributors 
in china we have seen the full year effect 
of the benefits from having our bonded 
warehouse facility in beijing
with such an extensive catalogue and 
diverse customer base our website and 
ecommerce capabilities become ever 
more important tools for our business 
and we have continued our ongoing 
programme of investment in these areas
dividends
whilst we continue to look for opportunities 
to increase shareholder value through external 
investments we are committed to sharing 
the benefits of our strong cash flow directly 
with shareholders through the distribution 
of annual dividends our policy is to distribute 
an annual dividend of 40 of adjusted posttax 
profit after adding back costs of acquisition 
and amortisation of acquisitionrelated 
intangibles and one off integration costs 
consequently after an interim dividend 
of 194 pence per share which was paid 
in april 2013 the directors are recommending 
a 170 increase in the final dividend to 
510 pence per share this would make 
an annual total of 704 pence which is 
an increase of 164 on that paid last year 
subject to shareholder approval at the annual 
general meeting agm in november 2013 the 
final dividend will be paid on 29 november 2013 
to shareholders on the register on 
8 november 2013
governance and the board
the composition of our board is kept under 
regular review since it is important that its 
members bring the appropriate skills required 
to improve the company’ s effectiveness and 
performance the board also needs to 
provide clear leadership and demonstrate 
the values for which the company stands
i am pleased to report that the board 
has functioned well in all respects during 
the year it has provided knowledgeable 
and robust challenge and support to the 
executive directors which has helped 
ensure that the company’s business 
strategy is appropriately developed 
and well delivered
there was one change to the board 
early in the financial year when professor 
tony kouzarides a cofounder of the 
company retired at the agm in october 2012 
this was after 14 years of tremendous service 
during which he played a vital contribution 
to abcam’ s success and for which we again 
offer him our sincerest thanks
looking ahead
we have cautioned for several years 
that pressures on research funding levels 
particularly in our western markets are a 
concern and could impact on our growth 
we have also pointed out the strengths 
of our business which help mitigate this 
challenge the success we have achieved 
in our 201213 results demonstrates the 
importance of our commitment to listening 
and responding to our customers’ needs 
and builds on the excellent work done in 
the business since it started 15 years ago 
looking ahead we expect market conditions 
to remain challenging but we remain confident 
that we have the capabilities and plans in 
place for continued success trading since 
the year end has been in line with the 
board’s expectations
abcam’s staff command widespread 
recognition for their knowledge and 
commitment it is a privilege to be part 
of such a team and our thanks go to 
them once again for another great year
mike redmond
chairman
9 september 2013
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 10 chief executive officer’s review
 in this golden age of 
biology our role in the 
centre of this quest for 
knowledge is stronger 
than ever and the 
opportunities for us 
more abundant than 
at any time previously
jonathan milner
chief executive officer
key points in jonathan’s review
1
  rabmab
®
 growth in full swing with over 5000 in the portfolio by the end 
of june 2013 more on page 16 
2
  robust growth despite pressures on funding for research  
more on page 14 
3
  focus on customers – introduced feedback loops to make the customer 
service even better more on page 16 
4
  massive increase in the number of products in the catalogue – 
over 29000 added during the year in antibodies kits biochemicals 
proteins and peptides more on page 18 
5
  identified growth opportunities from our core more on page 19 
in 201213 abcam has again performed 
well in a tough environment with 
impressive growth in sales and profits 
our success is a reflection of our 
continued commitment to provide 
an outstanding valueadded service 
to our customers
the original idea for abcam came to me 
when as a research scientist i began to 
appreciate how much the effectiveness 
and productivity of the work i was doing 
could be improved if i could access highly 
validated relevant antibodies with top 
quality customer support in the early days 
we experimented with a number of business 
models but relatively quickly the strategy 
we are still pursuing 15 years later began 
to take shape it continues to evolve but key 
to our success has been the single minded 
pursuit of its core features which are to
  drive hard the addition of relevant 
information on our products from 
as many sources as possible so that 
customers can validate them against 
their requirements 
  build strong relationships with the 
best oem suppliers of the most 
relevant products
  ensure we are supplying highquality 
products with worldclass service and 
scientific support to help customers 
be more successful in their research
  complement the addition of products 
to the catalogue with our own inhouse 
manufacturing capabilities
  build the industry leading website through 
which researchers have easy access to 
relevant products and associated data 
which is gathered and presented in the 
most innovative and creative ways
  identify scientific areas which are of 
particular interest to our customer base 
and through the dedicated gathering 
and presentation of information and 
the hosting of conferences seminars 
and webinars to provide access to an 
unparalleled depth of data and the work 
of key opinion leaders in these areas
  add new product ranges which are 
attractive to our existing customer base 
either in the same or adjacent segments 
in which we operate
  focus on understanding customer 
needs to help guide our product 
selection and presentation and
  extend geographic penetration where 
possible so that more users have 
access to our products
this approach and the continued 
development of new and innovative 
ways to improve in each of these areas 
has served us well and has created a 
worldclass business the 201213 year 
was no different in that regard and it is 
very pleasing to see how well our team 
has executed on our plans and the positive 
customer reaction we have received
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
11 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 f
strategic priorities
the strategic plan
continuing to build on our success
a strategic plan designed to drive strong performance 
while also strengthening our business model
11—
  continue to invest in consumer insight about our products and 
services and provide opportunities for customers to give instant 
feedback of their experience
  invest in our inventory holding and logistical capabilities worldwide
  continue to develop our website to provide a best in class experience 
for our customers across the world
  explore territories with good growth potential
we are focusing on service 
by improving our current levels 
of geographic market support 
as well as implementing new 
and improved distribution 
channels to further support 
rapidly growing markets
  invest in it infrastructure and processes to provide highquality 
easily accessible content for customers in order to continue 
to improve customer experience and interactions with abcam
  continue to better understand the needs of our academic and 
commercial customers in order to provide the right products for 
the different customers we serve
  continue to expand our capabilities to serve commercial entities 
across their entire development process in the life sciences sector
  invest resource into markets with good growth potential
we aim to listen to the needs 
of the scientific community 
we serve win new customers 
in our traditional markets 
and those showing growth 
potential and broaden our 
customer base through our 
extended product range 
capabilities and services
  remain in close contact with customers to enable us to understand 
and match their needs
  introduce new products to existing product ranges
  continue to build upon our inhouse production capabilities globally
  continue to focus on providing relevant and accessible scientific 
data to help customers choose the right products for their research
we strive to broaden 
and enhance our catalogue 
of products supporting data 
and service offerings through 
selective inhouse production 
the addition of highquality 
oem products and offering 
custom services
objectives
improve worldwide service levels
 win new customers
 enhance product range
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 12 f
201213 update case studies
taking the ‘agile’ approach 
for a robust it future
turn to page 18 
understanding and investing 
in our customers
turn to page 14 
rabmab
®
 integration 
and product launch
turn to page 16 
  hosted 21 scientific events and 16 scientific 
webinars enabling us to communicate 
with over 5500 customers and build 
awareness of abcam and its expanding 
highquality range of products and services
  invested resource into global customer 
focus groups and rolled out 69 customer 
surveys to better understand our 
customers and make improvements 
to our product and service offerings
  launched improved search functionality 
on the website to enable customers to 
filter and narrow down search results 
  customer satisfaction with new search 
functionality has been consistently 
rated over 85 in 201213 via the 
website exit survey
  invested in both local and international 
public relations to raise awareness of 
abcam and its expanding product range
  developed our abreview
tm
 system 
in addition to primary antibody customer 
reviews so customers can now submit 
share and read product reviews for 
nonantibody products including kits 
and reagents
  launched a global marketing campaign 
for rabmabs
® 
focusing on raising 
awareness of the product features 
and benefits for the researcher
  our abcam eugene production facility 
has continued its focus on products 
that support critical research areas as 
well as updating protocols and revising 
content for elisa kits
  with increased focus on oem 
partnerships abcam bristol has built 
a critical mass of over 2000 products 
in the biochemicals catalogue
  over 29000 new products added 
to the catalogue from both inhouse 
and oem suppliers in 201213
  our inhouse laboratory continued 
its internal testing strategy to add 
application data and images to a wide 
range of inhouse and oem products 
adding more than 3500 new product 
features in 201213
  expanded our inhouse production 
capabilities to enable us to offer a range 
of conjugated secondary antibodies
  opened the canadian virtual office 
enabling us to offer french speaking 
support to customers in canada 
  introduced a series of languagespecific 
scientific webinars in french spanish 
german portuguese and japanese 
to enhance the technical understanding 
of our products to nonnative 
english speakers 
  stocked a greater number of inhouse 
products at our stockholding hubs 
in cambridge uk cambridge us 
tokyo and beijing enabling us to offer  
same day despatch of customer orders
  by switching all rabmab
®
 sales to our 
own distribution platform we reduced 
delivery times in germany and japan 
which reduced order fulfilment times 
from over one week to the next 
working day
  since february 2013 we have received 
over 1500 responses to our customer 
transactional survey which we will 
use to improve our product and 
service offerings
strategic review performance review 
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 13
corporate governance financial statements area of focus
chief executive officer’s review continued
geographic market review
the table below outlines our revenues 
in each geographic region along with 
estimated underlying growth rates
the americas
the us is our largest market and has 
been our most challenging during the year 
after a succession of budget extensions 
and much political debate sequestration 
was finally passed into law on 1 march 2013 
to take effect for the period through 
to 30 september 2013 under these 
arrangements the budget for the national 
institutes of health “nih” which is the 
largest funding body for our us customers 
was reduced by 55 to 292 billion
in reality the uncertainty caused by the 
political discussions about potential cuts 
has slowed down our growth for some 
time and the nih had begun cutting 
grants earlier in the year at this point 
however it is too soon to say what impact 
sequestration will have over the longer term 
nor whether the current discussions about 
the 201314 budget which will be effective 
from 1 october 2013 will lead to more 
uncertainty or indeed further cuts taken 
together we think this means funding 
uncertainties look like being a feature 
of the us market for some time to come 
elsewhere within the americas region 
the introduction of french language support 
dedicated telephone lines and local currency 
invoicing for canadian customers has been 
very successful as has our change of 
distribution arrangements in brazil 
europe middle east 
 africa emea
the german uk and french markets 
are the largest within our emea region 
in each of these markets and several 
smaller ones relationships with former 
epitomics distributors were terminated 
during the year or not renewed and 
additional marketing successfully helped 
drive revenue and margin growth as 
customers began to order directly 
from abcam
growth in our main markets was pleasing 
whilst we saw the impact of funding 
pressures in some of the smaller southern 
europe markets with low or no growth 
in italy and spain elsewhere growth 
was good overall with notably strong 
performances in the netherlands 
following the change in distributor 
we mentioned last year 
we invested 
in understanding 
what our customers 
think about our 
products and 
services and 
actively encouraged 
customer feedback 
so that we can 
improve our 
offerings
in february 2013 we 
launched our transactional 
survey which encourages 
customers to feed back on 
products and services after 
every interaction with our 
customer service and 
technical support teams 
we introduced a simple 
satisfaction scale on all 
support emails which 
asks customers to rate 
their experience
customers
the introduction of french language 
support dedicated telephone lines 
and local currency invoicing for 
canadian customers has been 
very successful
revenue
201213
£000
revenue
201112
£000
increase in
reported
revenue 
estimated
underlying
growth rate
the americas 48711 42346 150 48
europe middle east  africa 38287 33615 139 125
japan 12035 11229 72 142
asia pacific 12279 8893 381 274
reagent product revenue 111312 96083 158 106
non product revenue 10894 1756 5205 251
total reported revenue 122206 97839 249 118
  calculated by taking into account the unaudited preacquisition revenues of businesses acquired during 
the 2012 financial year and comparing 201213 revenues to 201112 revenues in both periods using the 
exchange rates from 201112 for the currencies in which the group sells
 includes custom service ivdihc royalties and licence income
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 14 japan
the estimated underlying growth rate 
as defined in the table on page 14 for our 
japanese business was 142 in the year 
this was a good performance particularly 
considering that the comparators were 
challenging after a very strong performance 
in the previous year the japanese government 
announced a significant stimulus package 
in january 2013 that will invest 11 billion 
into science and technology including 
240 million specifically for stem cell 
research although the timescale for this 
additional expenditure is not yet clear
the switch from the former epitomics 
distributor was also very successfully 
implemented in japan 
asia pacific
given the strong funding in the region 
particularly in china asia pacific continues 
to be a market of significant potential for us 
we saw strong growth in china which was 
driven in part by the improvements in delivery 
times from having our bonded warehouse 
in beijing looking forward we plan further 
improvements in customer service and to 
combine the abcam and the exepitomics 
distribution arrangements in china which 
are currently operating separately
elsewhere in the region growth was 
also good notably in singapore and 
south korea
other lines of revenue
our custom services business leverages 
our proprietary rabmab
®
 technology to 
provide custom antibody solutions to meet 
customers’ specific requirements revenue 
growth over the period was driven by 
demand from our established customers 
and an increasing international presence
the royalties and licence income comes 
from certain royalty payments and licence 
deals with life science tools companies 
that use aspects of epitomics’s patented 
rabmab
®
 technology in the development 
and manufacture of their own antibodies 
these arrangements which generated 
revenue of £32m in the year were put in 
place prior to the acquisition of epitomics and 
are not core to our strategy consequently 
growth has been modest in the year and 
we expect revenue levels from these 
activities to reduce over time
we receive over 400 responses from our transactional 
survey every month and over 82 of customers rate our 
service as good or excellent for dissatisfied customers 
our support teams follow up with a personal call to see 
how we can improve their experience
in addition our inhouse market research team has 
conducted 69 unique customer surveys which have 
resulted in nearly 23000 responses globally the results 
of the surveys are analysed and help us with strategic 
business decisions by understanding our customers’ 
needs perceptions and interactions with abcam
survey areas include
  customer satisfaction
  pr oduct awar eness  
and satisfaction
  website user  
experience 
  brand awar eness  
and perception
  post event and webinar  
follow up and
  post complaint follow up
we have also carried out focus groups to better 
understand our customers through a more 
qualitative method
we will continue to invest our efforts in understanding 
our customers’ thoughts and requirements going into 
201314 in order to help us shape the future of abcam’ s 
products processes and services
understanding and investing 
in our customers
“ fi ve s tar 
technical 
support ”
“ prompt response clear 
suggestions and advice that 
suggests understanding 
of customer needs ”
“ thank you for 
the fast reply and 
the clear protocol ”
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 15 area of focus
chief executive officer’s review continued
products
expand our 
product range 
with highquality 
rabmabs
®
the acquisition of epitomics 
has enabled us to grow our 
rabmab
®
 portfolio to offer 
over 5000 rabmabs
®
 
to our customers by 
the end of june 2013
our team has also enriched 
rabmab
®
 datasheets 
by adding over 1000 
images from additional 
testing for tissue specificity 
and an additional 350 
scientific citations to provide 
our customers with the best 
available information 
we continually strive to improve 
the service we offer customers 
the best way to do this is through 
regular contact and creating as many 
opportunities as possible to receive 
feedback on our performance 
other lines of revenue continued
the small in vitro diagnostics 
immunohistochemistry ivd ihc arm 
of the business showed good growth 
it uses the rabmab
®
 technology to 
generate highquality antibodies for 
anatomical pathology during the year our 
facility in burlingame california received 
gmp certification which enables us to 
manufacture products directly for sale and 
take full control of the process the end user 
market for these products is dominated by 
the suppliers of the analytical machines 
several of whom are now customers and are 
a focus for our business development efforts
acquisition integration
a major focus for us during the year has 
been the integration of the two companies 
acquired during the 201112 financial year
ascent scientific limited ascent 
now known as abcam bristol supplies 
biochemicals to our existing customer 
base which are complementary to abcam’s 
catalogue of other protein research tools 
during the year the integration initiatives 
saw further it development on the website 
to make biochemical products more 
accessible for customers and to facilitate 
the extension of abcam’s oem strategy to 
this product range in the past few months 
the range has expanded significantly and 
at 30 june 2013 there was a total of 2766 
biochemical products on the catalogue 
which represents growth of over 300 
on the figure at the start of the year
the focus for the integration of the epitomics 
business has been initially around the transfer 
of revenues to the abcam platform which 
involved the transfer of orders previously 
fulfilled directly by epitomics and also 
products previously sold via distributors 
within europe other initiatives have seen 
the successful increase in production to 
1450 rabmabs
®
 in the year coordination 
between the teams on new target selection 
and some exciting work on the new product 
development such as working with abcam 
eugene to introduce new kits incorporating 
rabmabs
®
 the commercialisation of 
the rabmab
®
 technology is still at an 
early stage and we have many initiatives 
planned targeted on revenue growth 
which have the  technology at their core
running what is now a truly global business 
brings exciting new challenges and i am 
delighted with the way in which our teams 
across the organisation are working together 
we work hard on crosscommunication 
with regular visits from senior staff and 
global videoconferencing linking each office 
this will remain a key priority going forward
improvements in 
our customer service
we continually strive to improve the service 
we offer customers the best way to do 
this is through regular contact and creating 
as many opportunities as possible to 
receive feedback on our performance
in addition to our quarterly customer 
satisfaction surveys which give us a 
broad view of customer experience 
in february this year we introduced an 
online “transactional” feedback facility 
this is a way of getting very quick feedback 
at every interaction point with the customer 
– taking only a couple of seconds or just 
one click to do so this allows us to build 
a much more granular and immediate 
feedback mechanism which in turn 
allows us to respond faster and with 
greater flexibility to customer experiences
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 16 rabmab
®
 integration and product launch 
a unified distribution network 
for our customers
from september 2012 our customers could identify 
and buy the same products through both the abcam 
and epitomics websites direct links were offered at 
product level between both websites to enable ease of 
ordering and ensure a smooth transition for customers
the successful switch from the distributor arrangements 
in place preacquisition has helped to grow revenues 
and margins with the exception of revenues from the 
former epitomics business in china we have completed 
our plans to move catalogue sales to the abcam 
platform in early 2013 and have since provided 
a single channel for customers to buy rabmabs
®
 
and other abcam products
marketing the benefits of rabmabs
®
a global marketing campaign was launched in 
november 2012 positioned around the benefits 
of rabmabs
®
 over traditional antibodies and focused 
on the end user benefits rabmabs
®
 demonstrates a 
higher affinity and specificity than traditional monoclonals 
which means they bind 10 to 100 times more powerfully 
on average
adoption was driven through free rabmab
®
 trials and 
local language campaigns were run in europe and japan 
to match local needs
we also won transaction of the year award at the 
2013 european mediscience awards for the acquisition 
of epitomics
for the transactional feedback users are 
invited to rate a particular interaction on 
a fivepoint ranking with the option to add 
some explanatory text we are receiving 
over 400 responses a month through this 
system with around 82 of our customers 
rating their experience as good or excellent 
this method also allows us to give 
immediate follow up where a customer 
has had a problem as well as to give 
our support staff individual feedback 
on how they are performing
our it team has also been involved in 
a number of projects during the year to 
enable our systems to scale up for growth 
and improve our visitor experience on 
the website our customers have seen a 
significant improvement in the search facility 
on the site which has been redeveloped to 
enable products to be located more easily 
and quickly and our product datasheets 
have been redesigned for easy access 
to key information
market intelligence input into the rabmab
®
 production pipeline since 
june 2012 enables us to prioritise the most valuable rabmabs
®
 
there are also ongoing collaborations between all our product 
manufacturing sites to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 17 chief executive officer’s review continued
improvements in 
our customer service continued
with improved customer feedback facilities 
and more initiatives in the pipeline we are 
confident we can build on our already 
strong position and improve further 
the levels of service we offer
enhancements to 
our product range
we added over 29000 products to 
our online catalogue in the year as 
we broadened our product offering and 
deepened our coverage in existing areas 
of these products 10748 were nonrabmab
®
 
primary antibodies as we continue to drive 
the extension of what is still by far our 
largest revenue contributing range 
in addition the number of rabmab
®
 
branded products passed through the 
5000 product mark some of which are 
sourced from our oem suppliers we also 
continued the strategy of significantly 
increasing our range of protein peptides 
and kits which grew by 87 in number 
and through the introduction of our oem 
strategy to the biochemical field hugely 
increased the range of products on offer
worldwide 
service
the ‘agile’ approach for 
a robust it future
over the last year abcam’s development team has 
been working with an external software consultancy 
practising and bedding in ‘agile’ project management 
methodologies and best practice modern software 
engineering principles instead of traditional ‘waterfall’ 
project management where all the requirements are 
gathered up front and vast effort is spent before any 
development starts the agile approach encourages 
more incremental development in a lean way with 
requirements identified in a more ‘just in time’ fashion
the biggest impact for our developers is that they now 
work in tightly knit multifunctional teams and adhere to 
practices such as test automation pair programming 
and daily ‘standups’ where the team members share 
their progress and raise any challenges they face 
the benefits for the business include the delivery 
of robust easytouse systems that are flexible and 
easy to change when our rapid growth requires 
them to adapt in the future 
additional benefits include 
more efficient use of resources 
as well as motivating retaining 
and recruiting talent due 
to the implementation and 
best practice approach now 
in place it also enables us 
to release business critical 
functional enhancements to 
our it platform on a quicker 
and more efficient basis
it systems are critical to abcam 
and investment in our software 
development capability is vitally 
important for continuing to develop 
innovative business enhancing systems
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 18 we manufacture many of our own products 
at our various production facilities each of 
our facilities has met or exceeded its launch 
targets for the year and together our own 
produced products now account for 33 
of our product revenue 201112 23 
the remainder come from our oem 
suppliers and it is through their efforts 
and our own investment in new it systems 
to improve our speed and efficiency in 
uploading products that we have been 
able to set new records for the rate of 
product additions 
we have broken records in the amount 
of data added to the website and have 
also made enhancements to our abreview
tm
 
system so that researchers can leave 
reviews of our nonantibody products 
alongside customer qa all displayed 
with filter and sort functionality on each 
product datasheet
investment for growth
in my review last year i said that our 
strategic priorities are to build on our core 
business to capitalise on the opportunities 
from the acquisitions already made identify 
new areas to expand into and if appropriate 
pursue further ma activities i’m pleased 
to say these priorities are serving us well
during the year we have undertaken a great 
deal of analysis to identify where we see the 
opportunities for our core business which 
we now regard as including the acquisitions 
we have made this has identified new 
areas for organic growth which for a 
modest level of investment have the 
potential to boost our revenues in the 
medium and longer term in particular 
we see the opportunity to
  enhance the way in which we select protein 
targets on which to source products
  improve customer engagement with 
a focus on both current and potential 
new customers and
  improve our marketing by making it more 
targeted and relevant
these organic growth initiatives may be 
supplemented by our ma and inlicensing 
strategy where they can create the 
opportunity to accelerate growth further
so as to fully capitalise on these opportunities 
it is our intention to step up our annual 
expenditure in areas such as marketing 
ecommerce and operational infrastructure 
by £3m to £4m per annum we believe 
that the returns and higher growth will 
more than justify the investment made
board changes
one of my fellow cofounders of the 
company professor tony kouzarides 
retired from the board at the agm 
in october 2012 everyone at abcam 
is enormously grateful to tony for the 
tremendous contribution he made during 
14 years as a director and we greatly value 
the support he continues to provide from 
his laboratory in cambridge without him 
abcam would not be the successful 
company it is today thank you tony
summing up
the pace of scientific discovery in protein 
interactions and their role in health and 
disease is accelerating since abcam was 
founded in 1998 and the decoding of the 
human genome in 2000 there has been 
a huge increase in scientific knowledge 
in this area abcam has played a central 
role in contributing to this tremendous gift 
to humanity and to the health of future 
generations in this golden age of biology 
our role at the centre of this quest for 
knowledge is stronger and more important 
than ever we are therefore in the fortunate 
position of having an abundance of growth 
opportunities to pursue
our success would not be possible without 
the continued and loyal support of all our 
stakeholders including investors suppliers 
customers and scientific collaborators 
especially i would like to thank our staff 
whose dedication through the provision 
of highquality tools and support 
is unparalleled thank you for your 
contribution to our common purpose 
and to another successful abcam year
jonathan milner
chief executive officer
9 september 2013
during the year we have undertaken 
a great deal of analysis to identify where 
we see the opportunities for our core 
business which we now regard as 
including the acquisitions we have 
made this has identified new areas 
for organic growth which for a modest 
level of investment have the potential 
to boost our revenues in the medium 
and longer term 
revenue
249
since 2012
adjusted diluted earnings per share
127
since 2012
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 19 revenues of £1222m were 249 ahead 
of last year and adjusted profit before 
tax was £466m an increase of 194 
adjusted diluted earnings per share 
were up by 127 to 1757p
a focus for the year has been the further 
integration of the two acquisitions made 
in 201112 and positioning them for 
future growth
the acquisitions of epitomics and ascent 
were of different magnitudes with net 
consideration paid of us1500m and 
£98m respectively but our approach to the 
integration of each has been similar in both 
cases this involves the transitioning of their 
catalogue sales to the abcam platform 
using abcam’s extensive market data to 
select attractive products for their inhouse 
production scaling up the output of their 
production facilities and adding relevant 
data to their products
elsewhere in the group we have continued 
the programme of investment in our core it 
systems which has made them more robust 
and has helped drive efficiencies we have 
also undertaken a product and market 
review which has identified many areas 
which we believe are attractive for further 
revenue growth
strong growth in profitability and cash 
generation continues to underpin our policy 
to distribute dividends amounting to 40 
of adjusted post tax profits consequently 
the directors have recommended payment 
of a total dividend of 704 pence per share 
in respect of 201213 representing a 164 
yearonyear increase 
the following table overleaf shows revenues 
costs and expenses for the year which 
have been adjusted to aid comparison by 
separately identifying the amortisation of 
acquisition related intangible assets other 
than goodwill other related charges arising 
from the recent acquisitions and the oneoff 
costs incurred in their integration
revenue
reported revenue for the year was 
£1222m representing growth of 249 
over the prior year which is 258 growth 
on a constant currency basis assuming 
exchange rates for the currencies in which 
the group sells had remained unchanged 
from 201112 this includes a full year 
contribution from epitomics and abcam 
bristol taking into account the unaudited 
revenues of these businesses for the same
period last year we estimate that this 
represents underlying constant currency 
growth of approximately 118
gross margin
gross margin increased to 710 compared 
with 690 in the prior year 18 of the 
uplift came from the reagents business due 
to a combination of higher selling prices 
product mix and effective cost control 
a further 05 arose in the epitomics 
business and a negative 03 from the 
impact of less favourable exchange 
rates compared to the prior year 
administration and 
management expenses
the acquisition of abcam bristol was 
completed on 12 september 2011 
and that of epitomics on 19 april 2012 
for comparison purposes the table 
opposite shows the likeforlike analysis 
of costs excluding the direct expenses 
from these businesses in both years and 
separately identifies the impact of foreign 
exchange gains and losses the amortisation 
of acquisitionrelated intangibles and oneoff 
integration costs incurred in the year 
this shows that likeforlike costs grew 
by 179 the main movements being
  an increase in staff and related 
expenditure of 10 £14m
  a market and product review was 
undertaken in support of abcam’s 
growth strategy £13m and
  marketing costs increased 
by 184 £03m
there was also an increase of £05m in the 
amount credited back to profit and loss 
from production related activities
research and 
development expenditure
research and development rd 
expenditure relates to the development 
of new products as well as costs incurred 
in searching for and developing production 
process improvements these costs do not 
meet the requirements to be capitalised as 
an intangible asset and are therefore expensed 
through the income statement as incurred 
overall rd expenditure increased by 886 
in the year to £79m 201112 £42m 
reflecting the first full year of ownership 
of abcam bristol and epitomics £48m 
was incurred in our acquired entities 
financial review
it is pleasing that the 
group reported good 
growth in 201213 whilst 
going through a period of 
significant change as we 
worked on the integration 
of the former epitomics 
and ascent businesses
jeff iliffe
chief financial officer
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 20 201213 201112
adjusted
income
statement
£000
acquisition
related
intangible
amortisation
£000
integration
costs
£000
reported
ifrs
income
statement
£000
adjusted
income
statement
£000
acquisition
related
intangible
amortisation
£000
other
acquisition
related
charges
£000
reported
ifrs
income
statement
£000
revenue 122206 122206 97839 97839
cost of sales 35500 35500 30282 30282
gross profit 86706 86706 67557 67557
gross margin 710 710 690 690
administration and management expenses 33987 1525 400 35912 25275 436 3397 29108
rd expenses 6189 1757 — 7946 3686 528 4214
operating profit 46530 3282 400 42848 38596 964 3397 34235
operating margin 381 351 394 350
investment income 129 129 500 500
finance costs 83 83 73 73
profit before tax 46576 3282 400 42894 39023 964 3397 34662
tax 11452 1258 42 10236 9630 374 — 9256
profit after tax 35124 2024 442 32658 29393 590 3397 25406
basic eps 1776p 102p 022p 1652p 1588p 032p 184p 1372p
diluted eps 1757p 101p 022p 1634p 1559p 031p 180p 1348p
201213
£000
201112
£000
reported
increase
likeforlike
increase
total administration and management expenses 34934 25155 389 179
as  of revenue 286 257 
foreign exchange gainloss 947 120 
integration costs 400 — 
acquisitionrelated intangible amortisation 1525 436 
other acquisitionrelated charges — 3397 
total reported administration and management expenses 35912 29108 234 45
 excluding costs directly from abcam bristol and epitomics
abcam eugene abcam bristol and epitomics 
reflecting our strategy to invest in these 
businesses and in particular in new product 
development in cambridge uk rd costs 
were £13m the amortisation of the 
acquisitionrelated intangibles attributed 
to patents and technological knowhow are 
also classified as rd expenditure amounting 
to £18m in the year 201112 £05m
the output of this investment is reflected in 
the number of new product launches which 
saw a 14 increase from own manufactured 
products from abcam bristol and a 62 
increase in new rabmabs
®
 from epitomics in 
china the work in cambridge uk contributed 
to the first new conjugated secondary 
antibody product range whilst a significant 
portion of the output of abcam eugene was 
dedicated to the development of a new elisa 
kit range due for launch later this year
operating profit and expenses
as a consequence of the additional 
investment made in the year the adjusted 
operating margin reduced slightly to 381 
201112 394
earnings and tax
the adjusted profit before tax in 201213 
was £466m the effective tax rate on which 
was 246 201112 247 reflecting the 
benefit of announced changes to the uk 
corporation tax rate and tax efficiencies 
arising from a group reorganisation which 
were offset by the impact of higher foreign 
tax rates and a reduction in rd tax credits 
due to the company now being treated by 
the uk tax authorities as a large company 
rather than an sme after taking into account 
the deferred tax impact of acquisitionrelated 
intangible amortisation and oneoff integration 
costs of £04m the reported effective tax 
rate was 239 201112 267
adjusted basic earnings per share eps 
increased by 118 to 1776 pence per 
share and adjusted diluted eps by 127 
to 1757 pence the basic weighted average 
number of shares in issue during the period 
was 1977m 201112 1851m reflecting 
the full year effect of shares issued on the 
acquisitions made during 201112 and shares 
issued on the exercise of share options
balance sheet and cash flow
goodwill and other intangibles
goodwill at 30 june 2013 was £820m 
compared with £824m at 30 june 2012 
the decrease in goodwill is due to a credit 
of £14m resulting from fair value adjustments 
made to the assets acquired in the epitomics 
and ascent acquisitions which was offset 
by a foreign exchange adjustment of £10m 
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 21 balance sheet and cash flow 
continued
goodwill and other intangibles 
continued
following the acquisitions of mitosciences 
ascent and epitomics there has been 
considerable change in the way these 
entities are structured and integrated within 
the group these changes have resulted 
in discrete information available for an 
individual entity not reflecting the true 
substance of the performance of that entity 
and the value being added therefore it is 
not possible to accurately assess the fair 
value in use of the acquired entities as 
separate identifiable cashgenerating units 
cgus as such the goodwill has been 
reallocated to a single cgu being the 
abcam group goodwill is not amortised 
under ifrs but is subject to impairment 
review on at least an annual basis during 
the year the directors performed the review 
which involved making various assumptions 
regarding the future performance of the 
business after considering various scenarios 
that could reasonably occur the directors 
concluded that no impairment was required 
for more details please see note 12 to the 
financial statements
other intangible assets at 30 june 2013 
were £331m compared with £343m at 
30 june 2012 the movement primarily 
reflects amortisation of the intangible assets 
and the additions to capitalised software 
costs from the project to invest in our core 
it systems which is described in more detail 
below fair value adjustments totalling £10m 
were also made during the year in respect 
of intangible assets from the epitomics 
acquisition further analysis can be found 
in note 13 to the financial statements 
other intangible assets are amortised 
through the income statement over their 
estimated useful lives and the amortisation 
of acquisitionrelated intangible assets has 
been added back in arriving at adjusted 
profit as outlined above
capital expenditure
additions of tangible and intangible assets 
amounted to £73m 201112 £30m 
reflecting major items as follows
  further stages of an investment in our 
core it systems and website £32m 
this investment supports the delivery 
of abcam’s next stage of growth and 
includes the capitalisation of internal 
salary costs of £04m
  during the year £38m was transferred 
from assets under construction to 
software costs reflecting the roll out 
of completed phases of the project
  development of new hybridomas by 
epitomics £13m with a further £04m 
having been incurred on hybridomas 
under construction and
  investment in laboratory equipment £13m
cash flow
we maintained strong cash generation 
in the year cash generated by operations 
was £518m or 424 of group revenue 
201112 £377m 385 of revenue 
following high working capital outflow in the 
previous year the inflow in 201213 mainly 
reflects payables increasing by £36m due 
to an unusually high level of creditors and 
accruals at the yearend offset by an increase 
in inventories of £13m and receivable balances 
increasing by 9 reflecting increased sales 
activity and a marginal increase in debtor 
days to 345 201112 340
201213
£000
201112
£000
ebitda 48676 36953
integration costs 400 —
acquisition costs — 3397
adjusted ebitda 49076 40350
add back noncash movements 1292 1351
changes in working capital 1420 3998
cash generated by operations 51788 37703
as a percentage of revenue 424 385
preacquisition nontrading liabilities — 2094
acquisitionrelated costs — 3055
integration costs 400 —
capital expenditure and disposals 7215 2831
interest and taxation 11839 7506
dividends and share issues 11790 9528
purchase of investments 42 50961
net cash inflowoutflow 20586 38272
opening cash and term deposits 17480 55569
foreign exchange movements 245 183
closing cash and term deposits 38311 17480
cash flow
financial review continued
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 22 overall including foreign exchange 
movements the group reported a net 
cash inflow of £208m 201112 outflow 
of £381m the main reason for the change 
is due to there being no cash outflows on 
acquisitions in 201213 compared with the 
£51m net outflow on acquisitions in 201112 
higher outflows on capital expenditure 
taxation and dividends reflect the increase 
in the size of the business 
net cash and term deposits at the yearend 
totalled £383m compared with £175m at 
the end of 201112 and there is no bank 
debt on the balance sheet
looking ahead
it is pleasing that the group reported good 
growth in 201213 whilst going through a 
period of significant change as we worked 
on the integration of the former epitomics 
and ascent businesses
the review of our business which we 
undertook this year has identified several 
new opportunities to boost our growth 
these organic initiatives require investment 
in areas such as marketing ecommerce 
and operational infrastructure which will 
begin this year we expect to see the 
benefits from this investment in increases 
in revenues in the medium to longer term 
and believe that the returns will more 
than justify the investment made
we will of course continue to manage the 
group on a prudent basis control our costs 
tightly maintain sound financial controls 
and ensure we have scalable systems 
to support our growth
jeff iliffe
chief financial officer  
and company secretary
9 september 2013
strong kpis to highlight our continued success
number of products in catalogue
121558 products
315
140500
120000
100000
80000
60000
0
201213 201112 201011 200910
40000
20000
we constantly add new products from a variety of suppliers as well as 
those developed inhouse to bring our customers the best products 
available regardless of source
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
201213 201112 201011 200910
number of images added from inhouse testing
2041 images
we aim to make our product range as meaningful as possible to assist 
researchers to discover more a key component is our continued drive to 
source more information on our products including work by our inhouse 
characterisation team
120
80
0
201213 201112 201011 200910
40
160
revenue from nonprimary antibody products 
as a  of total product revenue
135 
we continue to work on enhancing the breadth of our product catalogue 
by identifying new product ranges in particular nonprimary antibody 
products such as secondary antibodies kits proteins peptides 
lysates and biochemicals
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 23 financial review continued
kpis continued
05
1
0
201213 201112 201011 200910
15
2
25
website response time seconds
188 seconds
we aim to achieve a website response time to wwwabcamcom globally 
of less than two seconds
345
34
335
33
325
32
201213 201112 201011 200910
35
355
number of debtor days at year end
345 days
effective credit control procedures have allowed us to maintain our 
debtor days at acceptable levels despite a marginal increase in 201213 
we continue to expect some increase in debtor days over time in line 
with practice in local markets as the geographical spread of sales widens 
website uptime
9999
9992
9990
9988
201213 201112 201011 200910
10000
9994
9996
9998
we continue to take action to improve our uptime measure all online 
systems experience some level of outage from time to time and there 
were no outages in the year that were material to our operations
60
50
40
30
20
10
201213 201112 201011 200910
70
80
orders fulfilled directly from stock average for year
787
having units in stock available for immediate shipment is a key component 
in our objectives to improve our delivery times to customers
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 24 principal risks and uncertainties
the board of directors has overall responsibility for the establishment and oversight of the 
group’s risk management framework
risk management policies are constantly reviewed taking into account market conditions 
and the group’s activities the board formally reviews the group’s risk register twice a year 
like every business the group faces risks in the undertaking of its day to day operations 
and in pursuit of its longerterm objectives further information on those risks and how they 
are managed by the group is set out on the following pages it is recognised that the group 
is exposed to a number of risks wider than those listed however we have chosen to disclose 
those of most concern to the business at this moment in time and those that have been the 
subject of debate at recent board or audit committee meetings
further additional information on the group’s financial risk management strategy can 
be found in note 27 to the financial statements
competition
there are several hundred antibody 
and related product suppliers around the 
world these include companies ranging 
from dedicated antibody suppliers to large 
multinational companies selling broad ranges 
of other products in addition to antibodies 
abcam’s rapid growth may attract new 
competitors andor stimulate existing 
competitors some of which have greater 
financial marketing and technological 
resources than abcam to invest further 
in their offerings to the market
abcam already sources products from many of the 
world’s leading suppliers and in response to this risk 
continues to build its supplier and product base invest 
in the functionality of its website and its operational 
capability the challenges for a competitor would include 
establishing a suitably large catalogue of products with 
proven validation in research sold under an established 
and successful brand and if they were to follow abcam’s 
supply model building relationships with a broad range 
of highquality suppliers
abcam has also established a team that monitors and 
evaluates companies developing technologies or market 
approaches that are relevant to our strategy with a view 
to potential partnership or acquisition
changing 
market 
conditions
whilst it is difficult to ascertain a precise figure 
a large proportion over 80 of abcam’s sales 
are funded by public money mainly through 
research grants any reduction in grant funding 
by central governments to address fiscal deficits 
is likely to have some impact on the level of 
demand for abcam’s products
separate from sources of funding there is 
also a long term trend of shifting market power 
and influence to the faster growing economies 
particularly in china and the far east
one of abcam’s key long term strategic objectives is to 
continue to expand its geographic diversity particularly 
in markets which are growing and where funding 
whether from public or private sources is increasing 
such as china
in addition abcam’s products are used as research tool 
consumables within laboratories so its sales are likely 
to be more resilient when budgets are cut than equipment 
manufacturers for example whose customers may 
be more unlikely to obtain approval for large capital 
investment projects
 strategic
mitigation
supplier  
relationships
abcam may lose a supplier if for example 
that supplier’s business strategy changed 
or it was no longer willing or able to continue 
to provide products
abcam has over 400 suppliers many of whom it has 
had relationships with for several years this makes 
losing a supplier less likely but if this were to occur 
abcam often has several antibodies to the same target 
whilst each is unique and in the event of a particular 
product no longer being available abcam would look 
to offer customers alternative products from within 
the catalogue
in the 2013 financial year no third party supplier 
accounted for more than 3 of group revenue
abcam has its own production capabilities which 
could also be utilised to generate alternative products 
revenues from our own manufactured products services 
and licences currently contribute approximately 39 
of total group revenue
 commercial
risk
performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 25
strategic review overview principal risks and uncertainties continued
health  safety hs 
and regulatory
as our product range expands the number 
of different potential hsregulatory risks is 
growing an example is with abcam bristol 
where we are exposed to chemical substances
we are comfortable that our internal hs processes 
are robust in handling these products and have worked 
to ensure that we have the appropriate classification of 
products on the catalogue
we use an external consultancy to perform an annual 
hs audit across the group and perform an internal 
audit on any new entities as they are acquired
international  
trade regulation
the group’s activities involve importing and 
exporting its products across many international 
borders any changes to the regulations 
covering such movements might have 
an effect on the group’s trading activities 
increasing geographical reach and continual 
expansion of our portfolio also exposes us 
to a wider set of regulatory restrictions
abcam closely monitors any changes to international 
import and export regulations and seeks to adapt 
its procedures wherever possible to ensure that 
the movement of products is not affected whilst 
maintaining compliance with such regulations
distributor  
relationships
in certain areas of the world abcam works 
through third party distributors who undertake 
marketing support activities and provide local 
logistical support consequently abcam is 
dependent on them fulfilling these roles in an 
effective and efficient manner so as to enable 
sales to continue to grow in these regions 
the distributors act as customers and 
therefore represent a financial risk for 
uncollected account balances
distributors typically work on annual contracts and there 
is a detailed qualification process which they are required 
to go through before being appointed outside of japan 
where we sell directly to subdealers distributor sales 
amounted to around 15 of total sales in the 2013 
financial year we have a team dedicated to maintaining 
close relationships with our distributors and continuing 
to deliver revenue growth
product  
defensibility
it is possible that new technologies may 
emerge in the future as viable alternatives 
to the use of antibodies in protein detection
abcam has many contacts in the industry and 
dedicates resource particularly within our ma 
team to research emerging technologies within 
our sector in this way abcam looks to stay abreast 
of technological developments in the field as far 
as is practicable with the aim of positioning the 
group to exploit the commercialisation of such 
technologies if they appear
 commercial
mitigation risk
intellectual  
property ip
research antibodies are not typically 
protected by intellectual property rights and 
the market can be characterised as having 
relatively low barriers to entry in this regard 
however where such rights are claimed 
to be the subject of third party patents or 
other proprietary rights abcam may be the 
subject of infringement actions or proceedings
abcam has registered ip over the underlying 
rabmab
®
 technology rather than particular 
antibodies the risk here is of workarounds 
to this ip 
abcam believes that its principal protection in the 
market lies with its business model rather than through 
intellectual property rights the breadth of highly 
specified products in its catalogue its ability to add 
products quickly and cheaply its extensive supplier 
base and its own production capability and brand 
each act as significant barriers to entry for competitors
in addition abcam has no single product dependency 
for example its biggest selling product accounts for 
less than 06 of group revenues meaning that any 
infringement actions are likely to have a minimal impact 
on sales
it is also our strategy to quickly commercialise our 
rabmab
®
 technology having products already in 
market provides defensibility and limits the potential 
impact of any workarounds
our rabmab
®
 technology is defended by a number of 
patents and we take steps to enhance this protection 
through further ip registrations as well as working to 
improve the underlying technology to remain differentiated 
from competing workarounds
 legalregulatoryfinancial
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 26 staff recruitment  
and retention
the contribution made by abcam’s highly 
skilled and dedicated staff has been and will 
continue to be important to abcam’s future 
success as the group’s profile grows it is 
important that it is able to continue to recruit 
and retain high calibre staff 
abcam places great emphasis on open communication 
with employees including quarterly groupwide meetings 
weekly office meetings and regular staff committee 
meetings there are also share ownership schemes 
with rewards based on seniority within the business
abcam also looks to create a supportive working 
environment employees are provided with significant 
opportunities for learning and development and are 
encouraged to provide feedback on this via an annual 
staff survey
integration
to support the group’s growth strategy 
of expanding into new markets and 
diversifying its product range a number 
of acquisitions have been made in order 
for these acquisitions to perform in line with 
management’s expectations and to minimise 
disruption to other areas of the business 
they need to be integrated into the group’s 
existing operations as appropriate in an 
efficient and timely manner
integration steps are planned in outline prior to 
acquisition and abcam has dedicated resource to lead 
the integration of acquired entities any issues identified 
are highlighted and responded to in an appropriate 
manner there are open channels of communication 
across all levels of the group which includes regular 
meetings with key management of the acquired entities 
and members of the executive management team
furthermore the continued investment in the integration 
and adaptability of the systems operated across the 
group are planned to also contribute to the successful 
integration of new businesses and products
foreign  
currency  
exposure
the group has significant operations 
outside the uk and as such is exposed to 
exchange rate fluctuation in particular the 
strength of sterling relative to the us dollar 
euro and japanese yen although there are 
natural hedges in place due to the fact that 
the group is able to utilise a proportion of 
its income in foreign currencies to pay for 
outgoings in those currencies in particular 
the us dollar the group generates surpluses 
of each currency
the board’s policy is to sell forward some of the 
expected surplus in order to reduce the shortterm 
exposure however longerterm movements in the 
relative strength of sterling will impact the group’ s profits
complexity
the size of our operation and the number of 
employees has grown rapidly both organically 
and by acquisition this brings with it the 
challenges of managing over large geographic 
distances and implementing appropriate 
systems policies and compliance procedures 
in different jurisdictions
abcam has grown quickly for several years and is 
familiar with many of the issues this presents the 
group continues to invest in its infrastructure and apply 
the resources necessary to support the business and 
ensure that appropriate controls are in place
mitigation risk
 legalregulatoryfinancial
infrastructure
abcam operates in a market which it 
has been able to exploit through the use 
of online and ecommercebased systems 
these systems need to be robust efficient 
and scalable in order for the group to 
continue to manage its growth the risks 
here are both from the infrastructure and 
organisation of the it systems as well as 
the ability of abcam’s products to be found 
by online users through popular internet 
search engines
the group invests extensively in its it systems both 
from scalability and security points of view as well as 
from usability aspects abcam uses a global content 
delivery partner to increase both the reliability and 
access speed for viewing the majority of its static site 
content dynamic content is served from an external 
fully supported data centre the group outsources 
regular security penetration testing on its website from 
a third party and pays considerable attention internally 
to the search engine optimisation and usability of the 
website through user testing feedback and surveys
all ecommerce systems experience some level of 
outage from time to time so we continue to take action 
to improve our disaster recovery responses as well as 
to work on redesigning our application architecture to 
minimise the single points of failure within our systems 
the overall aim is to minimise the risk of any material 
impact on the business and indeed there were no 
outages during the year that caused a material impact
 operational
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 27 corporate social responsibility
our approach to sustainability
people and the workplace
the recruitment of excellent people 
has driven our success our culture is one 
that empowers individuals the working 
environment is fun and intense with 
everybody working together as a team 
to deliver great service and the best 
products to our customers we recruit using 
an online system which gives openness and 
transparency and seek to work to best 
practice in all our recruitment activities
we value our employees and listen to our 
staff understanding their views on abcam 
as an employer we undertake a range of 
surveys including global staff surveys which 
consider regional offices and departments 
giving us a clear picture about the health of 
the organisation from an employee perspective
as the group becomes more complex 
and global we ensure we communicate 
regularly on both business performance 
and employee matters through formal 
and informal meetings
building on our success
over the past 15 years our staff have driven 
abcam forward and made us the company 
we are today to continue our success we 
have identified key abcam behaviours that 
define our global culture
  being customercentric
  focussing on success and
  being bold
giving back to the community
abcam is committed to ongoing support 
of the community of entrepreneurial 
businesses clustered around cambridge 
uk we support the cambridge network 
the university of cambridge and the 
far left jacob gray from abcam’ s charity 
committee presents a £15000 cheque to 
dr carrie herbert chief executive of red balloon 
left encouraging health and wellbeing at our 
cambridge uk office with daytime yoga classes
“ supporting our community 
is really important to abcam 
we’ve been incredibly 
fortunate over the years 
and are now really pleased 
to be able to now give 
something back providing 
support at what is a critical 
point for some of these 
charities we look forward 
to helping other good 
causes in the future”
we aspire to carry out business 
to the highest of ethical standards
12—
judge business school by giving talks 
and presentations and host students 
from a range of academic institutions
abcam regularly donates to a range of local 
national and international causes through its 
charity committee the committee which 
consists of abcam employees has been 
administrating funding to charities since 2004
we give a maximum of 01 of the previous 
year’ s pretax profits to charity in 201213 we 
have decided to increase this by the amount 
we have saved from two of the executive 
directors waiving their pension entitlements 
donations are allocated by a committee of 
staff volunteers in each of our offices working 
within guidelines set by the board
the group made no political donations 
during 201213 and made charitable 
donations of £91960 2012 £51230
health safety and the environment
supporting health safety and the environment 
are essential elements of our ongoing success 
our approach is to promote ownership at 
every level and we have a highly enthusiastic 
and professional network of individuals 
and committees who form our global safety 
network this encompasses employees from 
all areas of the business health and safety 
in the group is ultimately the responsibility 
of the chief executive officer
it is acknowledged that compliance with 
legislation is the minimum standard and 
abcam will endeavour to follow best practice 
wherever reasonably practical resources 
are allocated to ensure that safety standards 
are maintained and that open communication 
and employee involvement is encouraged
jonathan milner
chief executive officer
what our employees say about abcam
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 28 “ with abcam’s help we shall be able to grow  
and deliver our recovery programme for 
severely bullied and traumatised children ”
  dr carrie herbert  
founder and chief executive of red balloon 
“ we are delighted to welcome abcam as the latest 
member of our community foundation 100 initiative 
supporting local voluntary and community groups 
that are working hard to improve the quality of 
life across the communities of cambridgeshire ”
  jane darlington  
ceo of cambridge  
community foundation 
“ we would like to thank abcam for their donation 
as we look to develop new initiatives that will give 
those that are homeless or vulnerably housed the 
skills to help them get back into employment ”
  rachel newell  
social enterprise and business development manager wintercomfort
the group continues to be committed to 
an annual audit process by external safety 
advisors in order to understand and maximise 
our performance demonstrate best practice 
to all stakeholders and identify areas for 
targeted improvements we have added 
to our capabilities by appointing an external 
health and safety consultant in china
from a commercial perspective the health 
and safety function supports the fast efficient 
flow of products to the catalogue
the environment is very important to us and 
we have a range of initiatives from recycling 
to encouraging staff to cycle to work and 
wherever possible using bicycle couriers 
to deliver and collect unwanted packaging
wellbeing
abcam believes that wellbeing directly 
affects how engaged people are in their 
work and together engagement and 
wellbeing enable outstanding performance 
wellbeing is dependent on both physical 
and psychological health and by supporting 
these abcam creates and promotes 
a healthy working environment
ensured the scalability of the health 
and safety function through a global 
safety network covering all abcam offices
  strengthening our global safety network to enable future growth 
and complexity of product types
created a global health and safety 
auditing system 
  building on our global safety standards across all offices
introduced wellbeing events across all sites  building on our wellbeing initiatives to ensure a healthy 
working environment
by working with government initiatives 
and hosting travel and cycle events we 
have encouraged environmentally friendly 
ways to travel to work
  making further recommendations on reducing the environmental 
impact of our staff travelling to work
2013 achievements future activities
abcam in the community
overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 29 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 30 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 30
corporate governance
in this 
section
31 message from the chairman
32 board of directors
34 executive management team
36 general managers
37 corporate governance statement
40 audit committee
41 nomination committee
42 directors’ remuneration report
50 other disclosures
52 statement of directors’ responsibilities
nurturing employee 
excellence is key 
to our success
abcam plc is a public limited company 
which is listed on the alternative 
investment market aim of the london 
stock exchange this section contains 
the primary financial statements and 
the accounting policies applied for the 
financial year ended 30 june 2013 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 31
introduction
at abcam we value corporate governance 
highly and this is reflected in our governance 
principles policies and practices we believe 
that effective governance not only in the 
boardroom but right across the business 
ultimately produces a better business and 
supports longterm performance therefore 
notwithstanding the fact that abcam is an 
aimlisted company we are committed 
to ensuring that the group is managed 
in accordance with the principles set out 
in the uk corporate governance code 
2010 the code
the core activities of the board include
  providing entrepreneurial leadership 
within a framework of prudent and 
effective controls for risk assessment 
and management
  setting the strategic aims of the group 
ensuring that resources are in place for the 
group to meet its objectives and reviewing 
management performance and
  setting the values and standards of the 
group and ensuring that its obligations 
to shareholders and others are 
understood and met
this year activities have focussed on 
the integration of and investment in the 
two companies acquired during 201112 
abcam’ s success is built on good governance 
and sound management and the board has 
continued to play an active role in ensuring 
that these principles are core to the way 
we do business with particular emphasis 
on new activities and geographies in which 
the company operates commitment 
to these principles extends through the 
business and i have been encouraged by 
the extent of the wideranging discussions 
and the constructive and positive approach 
to issues that has taken place between the 
board and the members of the executive 
management team during the year
compliance with the code
the code is the standard against which 
we have chosen to measure ourselves 
in 201213 and we are pleased to confirm 
that we complied with the code throughout 
the period under review
message from the chairman
a rich history of 
successful growth
13—
mike redmond
chairman
9 september 2013
the corporate governance statement 
and directors’ remuneration report set 
out on pages 37 to 49 detail how the group 
has applied the principles of good governance 
contained within the code
board skills and experience
following the appointment of three new 
nonexecutive directors in the 201112 
financial year which increased the 
knowledge base and experience of 
the board specifically in the life science 
reagents sector and ecommerce trading 
i feel we have a good balance of the skills 
required to take the group forward through 
its next stage of development
we recognise that none of the current 
members of the board are women but 
remain open to the prospect of appointing 
women to the board in the future women 
represent 52 of abcam’s workforce as 
a whole and we have two female members 
of the executive management team
the mix of experience on our board and 
more detailed biographies are provided 
on the following pages 
appointments and succession
we have made no appointments to the board 
this year which reflects a balance between 
financial sector specific and general 
business skills with a highly experienced 
executive and nonexecutive team
as previously mentioned following 
the completion of 14 years’ service as 
a nonexecutive director professor 
tony kouzarides retired from the 
board at last year’s agm
monitoring risk
monitoring the level of risk and ensuring 
appropriate governance to support this 
remains a key objective involving the support 
of the audit committee it is important that 
we continue to drive the level of challenge 
and debate around risk as well as monitor 
and test our understanding of risk and 
our tolerance as our business evolves
i continue to be pleased with the performance 
of the group and believe that we have a 
strong and very able board in place which 
has demonstrated its commitment to drive 
and support future growth abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 32
board of directors
an experienced and 
enthusiastic group of leaders 
14—
abcam’s board has the breadth and depth necessary 
to guide the group as it seeks to take full advantage 
of new opportunities and contend with new challenges
1 mike redmond
ma cantab
chairman
appointment march 2009
experience mike has substantial 
international experience in the pharmaceutical 
industry gained in both executive and 
nonexecutive capacities at businesses 
ranging from multinational organisations 
to startup companies
external appointments he is currently
chairman of dechra pharmaceuticals plc
and his recent chairmanships include
synexus clinical research plc arakis
limited and microscience limited his
executive career began at glaxo group plc
in 1967 and he has held senior executive
positions in marketing and management
at companies including schering plough
corporation and fisons plc
fact mike is never happier than when 
crashing around in a windy north sea in 
his boat
3 jim warwick
ma cantab
chief operating officer
appointment november 2000
experience jim has an ma in computer 
science from the university of cambridge 
he joined abcam originally as technical director 
and took over operational management of the uk 
office as managing director in june 2004 working 
on both cost saving and efficiency improvement 
projects in 2009 jim became chief operating 
officer with responsibility for overseeing the 
operational strategy of the group as a whole 
external appointments from 1986 to 2003 jim 
worked for analysys limited a cambridgebased 
telecommunications consultancy heading up its it 
software and web development initiatives
fact jim wrote two commercial programs
with friends for the bbc microcomputer which
were published by acornsoft
2 jonathan milner
phd
chief executive officer
appointment april 1998
experience jonathan is an experienced 
entrepreneur and business leader he gained 
his doctorate in molecular genetics at leicester 
university after graduating in applied biology 
at bath university from 1992 to 1995 he was 
a postdoctoral researcher at bath university 
following which he worked at the university 
of cambridge in the laboratory of professor 
t ony kouzarides studying cancer specifically 
the brca2 gene associated with hereditary 
breast cancer he identified the market 
opportunity for supplying highquality antibodies 
to support protein interaction studies and 
in 1998 jonathan founded abcam with 
david cleevely and professor t ony kouzarides
external appointments jonathan is an active 
supporter of the cambridge uk business 
community he is a nonexecutive director of 
horizon discovery and also a nonexecutive 
director of frontier developments he is also 
chairman of axol bioscience ltd
fact jonathan is a fanatic rush fan 
going to their gigs whenever possible
4 jeff iliffe
aca
chief financial officer 
and company secretary
appointment november 2007 
experience jeff is a chartered accountant 
who was appointed as abcam’s chief 
financial officer after previously working 
for the company as a financial consultant 
he has extensive experience of the city 
industry and internetbased business 
external appointments jeff was a corporate 
financier in life sciences at panmure gordon 
 co between 1989 and 1996 he then 
moved into industry holding a number of 
financial positions at companies including 
the environmental consultancy enviros group 
limited and plethora solutions plc prior to 
joining abcam he was chief financial officer 
at the ecommerce company st minver ltd 
jeff is also a nonexecutive director of 
treatt plc and a trustee of the cambridge 
arts theatre
fact jeff has a passion for live music 
particularly jazz
1 2 3 4 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 33
5 peter keen
aca
nonexecutive and senior 
independent director
appointment october 2005 
experience peter joined abcam’s board 
prior to the company’s ipo and is a chartered 
accountant with experience in the financing 
and management of biotechnology companies 
external appointments peter is the recently 
appointed chief executive of the technology 
investment firm cambridge innovation capital plc 
and is currently a nonexecutive director of a 
number of life science companies including the 
biotech growth trust plc mrc t echnology ltd 
and oval medical technologies ltd peter 
was chief financial officer of arakis limited 
until its successful trade sale in 2005 and 
was also cofounder and finance director 
of chiroscience group plc after which he 
helped establish and was uk managing 
director of the venture firm merlin biosciences
fact peter plans to complete the 
630 mile south west coast path
6 michael ross
ma cantab
nonexecutive director
appointment november 2011
experience michael is an ecommerce 
executive and advisor with a high level 
of technical expertise
external appointments he cofounded 
ecommera in 2006 an ecommerce 
technology and advisory business where 
he is an executive director he is currently a 
nonexecutive director of warehouseexpresscom 
he is also an ecommerce advisor to a number 
of other businesses after working at mckinsey 
 company from 1994 to 1999 michael 
cofounded the online retailer figleavescom 
in 1999 where he was chief executive officer 
until 2006
fact michael played chess for 
england once
7 murray hennessy
mba
nonexecutive director
appointment november 2011
experience murray has an impressive 
track record of working internationally 
in customerfacing industries as well as 
significant experience of online businesses
external appointments he is currently
chief executive of thetrainlinecom the
online train ticket retailer which he joined in
2008 prior to which he was chief executive
of avis europe plc the car rental company
between 2001 and 2004 murray was 
the commercial director of john lewis
department stores where he pioneered
the store’s online presence johnlewiscom
after an early career as a management
consultant in the london tokyo and boston
offices of bain  company murray held a
number of senior positions in the restaurant
industry and also led an internet startup
fact murray grew up in both the
us and ireland
8 anthony martin
phd
nonexecutive director
appointment september 2011
experience anthony has more than 25 years’ 
experience in the life science industry within 
the uk and usa in both executive 
and nonexecutive roles
external appointments he is currently 
nonexecutive chairman of immunodiagnostics 
systems holdings plc sphere medical holding 
plc and phicotherapeutics ltd anthony has 
a doctorate in immunology from the university 
of manchester medical school he has been 
chief executive officer of british biotechnology 
products azur environmental the molecular 
biology division of invitrogen corporation 
and molecular probes inc anthony’s 
previous nonexecutive appointments 
include preludetrust plc and chairman of 
neutec pharma plc and molecular insight 
pharmaceuticals inc he has also served 
on the boards of invitrogen corporation 
and agilent technologies
fact anthony runs to keep fit and sings 
in a local choir
for information on the board’s 
operation and responsibilities
turn to page 37 
length of tenure
m redmond
j milner
j warwick
j iliffe
p keen
m ross
m hennessy
a martin
98 02 06 10 14
5 6
7
8 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 34
executive management team
from left to right 
1 jonathan milner
chief executive officer
2 jeff iliffe
chief financial officer 
and company secretary
3 jim warwick
chief operating officer
biographies on page 32
the emt meets on a weekly basis and is responsible 
for developing and implementing the strategy approved 
by the board in particular the emt is responsible for 
ensuring that the group’s budget and forecasts are 
properly prepared and that targets are met and for 
generally managing and developing the business within 
the overall budget significant variations from the budget 
and changes in strategy require approval from the main 
board of the group michael hadjisavas joined the emt 
in april 2013 and danielle miller in early june 2013 
alan hirzel joined abcam as cmo on 5 august 2013
1 2 3 4 5
4 mark bushfield
phd
scientific director
experience mark joined abcam in 2008 
as scientific director responsible for product 
development manufacturing and scientific 
business development 
mark is a biologist with over 20 years’ research 
and management experience in academia 
pharma and biotechnology prior to joining 
abcam mark trained in cellular signalling and 
then worked for pfizer before cofounding 
cambridge drug discovery ltd cdd after 
successfully integrating cdd into biofocus 
mark joined celltech as research director 
at celltechucb mark has coauthored over 
30 peer reviewed scientific papers and given 
over 40 presentations to scientific meetings 
and societies
fact mark has just reembarked on a 
challenge to climb all 282 of scotland’s munros
5 philippe cotrel 
phd
commercial director
experience philippe joined abcam 
in 2008 as commercial director he has 
over 20 years’ experience in sales and 
marketing in the life science industry before 
joining abcam philippe worked for affymetrix 
where he was responsible for their european 
operations prior to that he held several 
commercial positions at amersham pharmacia 
now part of ge healthcare and oxford 
glycosciences he holds a postgraduate 
degree from institut pasteur paris and 
obtained a phd in biotechnologies from 
institut des sciences appliquees toulouse 
france as commercial director philippe 
has responsibility for the group’s sales and 
marketing activities and the management 
and development of its oem supplier base
fact philippe enjoys cycling challenges
involving either long distances or high climbs overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 35
10 jane cooke 
corporate services director
experience jane is an hr professional with 
over 25 years’ experience in a range of sectors 
including learned and professional publishing 
and engineering her initial academic 
background was social policy with a particular 
interest in international comparisons jane 
joined abcam in 2005 and has supported the 
growth of the group from a human resources 
and health and safety perspective she has 
considerable international experience working 
across the uk us china hong kong and 
japan jane has focused on building scalable 
human resources and health and safety 
functions which are flexible and adaptable to 
abcam’s commercial needs and is passionate 
about abcam and its creative and talented 
staff around the world
fact jane is an enthusiastic yachtswoman
sailing the family’ s westerly falcon and in addition
to her sailing qualifications she also completed
a course on marine engine maintenance
7 ed ralph 
phd
chief information officer
experience ed’s academic background 
is in molecular biology and he started 
developing websites in 1996 joining 
abcam in 2000 he was instrumental in 
growing the technology capabilities that 
have supported abcam’s rapid growth 
and is responsible for the software 
development team the it operations 
team and the ecommerce department 
ed also serves on the council of advisors 
for red gate software a company of over 
250 people that innovate produce and 
sell software tools to developers and 
database administrators
fact ed has cycled to abcam’s offices 
approximately 2500 times compared to 
driving 1100
6 michael hadjisavas 
phd
general manager and vp corporate 
strategy and development
experience michael joined abcam in january 2013 
as an executive with over 20 years’ experience in 
life sciences genomics translational medicine 
and diagnostics he leads the strategic portfolio 
management committee to drive ma and other 
external investment strategies and oversees the 
integration of acquired entities he has held numerous 
leadership positions at genprobe life technologies 
applied biosystems sigmaaldrich genosys 
biotechnologies and holds advisory roles with 
two startup genomics companies he holds bsc 
honours and phd degrees in molecular and cellular 
biology from the university of adelaide south australia 
and postdoctoral training at texas am university
fact michael lives with his family in the bay
area san francisco enjoys travel food wine and 
volunteers as an executive mentor to managers 
in the life sciences research sector
8 danielle miller 
phd
operations director
experience danielle joined abcam in 2001 
and over the last 12 years has overseen the 
growth in customer support and logistics 
capabilities championing investment in 
automated stock storage solutions and the 
importance of scientific support in our service 
offering she works closely with the regional 
general managers to drive consistency and 
efficiency of operational processes and to 
ensure that customers can expect similar 
high levels of service across the world 
prior to joining abcam danielle worked 
as a strategic management consultant and 
holds a phd and degree in natural sciences 
both from the university of cambridge 
fact danielle plays tennis for her 
local club enjoys skiing and has recently 
relearned how to do a handstand in the 
abcam yoga class
9 alan hirzel
chief marketing officer
experience alan has over 20 years of 
global business and leadership experience 
prior to joining abcam he spent 14 years 
with leading management consultant bain 
 company most recently serving as head 
of the uk healthcare practice and head 
of its london office operations earlier 
in his career he led product innovation 
efforts for several brands at kraft foods 
alan has a bs in plant molecular biology 
an ms from cornell university and an 
mba from the johnson graduate school 
of business at cornell
fact alan fulfils his passion for social 
enterprise as a trustee at the social 
business trust and as a nonexecutive 
director of uk national citizen service trust
6 7 8
9
10 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 36
general managers
1 nick lines 
ba hons
general manager abcam kk
experience nick is an expert in establishing 
and developing businesses in japan he has 
worked in international relations for the japanese 
government and has advised companies seeking 
to establish representative offices in japan 
through ukti at the british embassy in t okyo 
on joining abcam in 2006 nick’ s first role was 
to establish the t okyo office and manage the 
expansion of a distribution model to a network 
of local subdealers nick is responsible for sales 
distribution and operations customer service 
scientific support and logistics in the japanese 
market nick holds a degree in japanese and 
east asian studies from the university of leeds 
and has lived and worked in japan since 1999 
nick also acted as interpreter for the football 
association and several england players during 
the 2002 world cup in japan
fact nick is a fully qualified jfa level 4 
football referee and regularly referees local 
japanese league football matches at weekends
3 steve roome 
phd
general manager abcam bristol
experience steve has considerable experience 
within the life science reagents industry he 
obtained his degree in biochemistry and his 
phd in organic chemistry at the university of 
nottingham followed by a postdoctoral position 
at sussex university he then spent ten years 
with t ocris before leaving the senior management 
team to join the commercial unit at ge healthcare 
steve cofounded ascent scientific in 2005 and 
took it through to acquisition by abcam in 2011 
subsequently running the business unit in bristol 
with responsibility for the development of the 
abcam biochemicals range of products 
on 31 august 2013 steve left his position as 
general manager at abcam bristol we thank him 
for all his hard work and dedication over the last 
year and wish him well in his future endeavours
fact steve has a keen interest in rocketry
and astrophysics and his ideal dinner date except
his wife of course would be professor brian cox
2 bill campbell 
phd
director and general manager 
of abcam inc
experience bill joined abcam in april 2005 
in the scientific support department became 
responsible for us operations in 2007 and 
general manager in february 2012 he is 
currently responsible for sales customer 
support distribution and operations in the 
americas as well as the day to day running 
of the cambridge us office prior to joining 
abcam bill received his phd in biology from 
brown university where he studied proteins 
involved in cancer he also completed a 
four year post doctorate at harvard medical 
school studying proteins involved in 
alzheimer’s disease and has authored 
or coauthored 16 scientific publications
fact bill is the only general manager 
who started in an entry level role at abcam
4 james murray 
phd 
general manager and rd 
manager abcam eugene 
experience james is responsible for 
the daytoday management of the team in 
eugene and leads their rd group by guiding 
new product development strategy and 
project management he holds a phd in 
biochemistry from the university of leeds 
after graduation he moved to the united 
states to perform postdoctoral research 
studies in the area of mitochondrial biology 
at the university of oregon’s institute of 
molecular biology he joined mitosciences 
in 2004 as one of the first employees 
and was the rd manager at the time 
of acquisition by abcam in 2011
fact james is a keen marathon 
runner – his next goal is to qualify for 
the boston marathon
5 peter lee 
mba 
general manager  
abcam hong kong ltd 
experience peter joined abcam in 2009 
to establish an office in hong kong to serve 
our asia pacific market he has a degree 
in applied biology an mphil in biochemistry 
and holds an mba peter has over 18 years’ 
experience in the life sciences market in both 
direct and channel sales within the asia pacific 
region in particular he has spent 15 years 
focusing on the china market specifically in the 
consumables and capital equipment markets 
his previous experience was gained through 
senior roles at amersham amersham 
biosciences ge healthcare and biacore 
peter is responsible for sales distribution and 
operations customer service scientific support 
and logistics for the asia pacific region
fact peter enjoys sightseeing and taking 
photos as well as cooking and eating
each general manager of abcam’s 
subsidiary companies reports directly 
to a member of the emt they are 
responsible for the daily operational 
management of their respective entities 
ensuring a consistent implementation 
of abcam’s strategy across the 
whole group
1 2 3 4 5 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 37
corporate governance statement
this section and the remuneration 
report detail how the group has 
applied the principles of good 
governance contained in the uk 
corporate governance code 2010
leadership
operation of our board
the board holds full meetings every month 
with attendance required in person one 
month and via conference call the next 
month in addition ad hoc meetings may 
be called to discuss urgent pertinent issues 
arising during the course of the year or to 
approve the annual and interim accounts 
or dividends
the board has a policy reviewed at least 
annually to set out which matters are reserved 
for the decision of the board and those to 
which the executive directors need not refer 
for approval this policy also identifies those 
matters regarding which full delegation to a 
board committee is not normally permitted 
because a final decision is required to be taken 
by the whole board matters which the board 
considers are suitable for delegation to a 
board committee are contained within each 
committee’s terms of reference which are 
available on the company’ s investor relations 
website wwwabcamplccom
the board delegates day to day 
responsibility for managing the group to 
the executive management team emt 
and to its committees details of which 
are set out on the following pages
the emt is responsible for developing 
and implementing the strategy approved 
by the board in particular it is responsible 
for ensuring that the group’s budget and 
forecasts are properly prepared that targets 
are met and for generally managing and 
developing the business within the overall 
budget variations from the budget and 
changes in strategy require approval 
from the main board of the group
the emt which meets on a weekly basis 
comprises the chief executive officer the 
chief financial officer the chief operating 
officer the chief information officer the 
scientific director the commercial director 
the corporate services director the 
general manager and vice president 
corporate strategy and development the 
operations director and the chief marketing 
officer brief biographies and responsibilities 
of these key members of staff are set 
out on pages 34 and 35 emt meetings 
are attended by other senior operational 
personnel as appropriate
the general managers of each of our 
regional offices are responsible for the daily 
operational management of their respective 
entities and each report into a member of 
the emt providing a key role in ensuring 
a consistent implementation of abcam’s 
strategy across the business along with 
other senior departmental managers 
brief biographies and responsibilities of the 
general managers are set out on page 36
the roles of chairman and chief executive 
officer are vested in separate individuals 
each with clear allocation of accountability 
and responsibility 
the main responsibilities of the 
chairman include
  leadership of the board and creating 
the conditions for overall board and 
individual director effectiveness 
and a constructive relationship with 
good communications between the 
executive and nonexecutive directors
  ensuring that the board as a whole 
plays a full and constructive part in the 
development of strategy and overall 
commercial objectives
  ensuring that there is effective 
communication with shareholders
  promoting the highest standards 
of integrity probity and corporate 
governance throughout the company 
particularly at board level and
  ensuring that the performance of 
the board as a whole its committees 
and individual directors is formally and 
rigorously evaluated at least once a year
the main responsibilities of the chief executive 
officer include
  proposing and developing the company’s 
longterm strategy and overall commercial 
objectives to ensure the company’ s position 
remains differentiated in conjunction with 
the emt
  ensuring initiatives for longterm 
growth are appropriately championed 
and resourced within the company in 
the short term
  managing the emt 
  leading the communication programme 
with shareholders and analysts and
  fostering good relationships with 
key stakeholders
peter keen has been identified as the 
senior independent director who provides 
a communication channel between the 
chairman and the nonexecutive directors 
and is available to discuss matters with 
shareholders when required
the directors have the benefit of directors’ 
and officers’ liability insurance and have 
access to the advice of the company 
secretary who acts as secretary to 
all of the board committees
the board agenda
the board agenda focuses on the themes 
of driving our strategy monitoring risk and 
monitoring execution against the strategy 
via regular business financial and 
departmental updates
the chairman meets with the executive 
directors prior to scheduled and ad hoc 
meetings to discuss and set each 
board agenda
the culture of our board meetings is to 
encourage rigorous debate the nonexecutive 
directors regularly constructively challenge 
the performance of management in meeting 
agreed goals and objectives and help develop 
proposals on strategy there is an opportunity 
for more informal and extended discussions 
on strategy during bimonthly offsite 
board dinners
effectiveness
how do we make sure our board 
is effective
we have considered the overall balance 
between executive and nonexecutive 
directors and believe that the structure 
of the board and the integrity of each 
director ensure that there is no one 
individual or group dominating the decision 
making process the board reflects a good 
balance between financial sector specific 
and general business skills with a highly 
experienced team leading the business 
in both executive and nonexecutive roles
before each meeting the board is 
provided with information concerning the 
state of the business and its performance 
in a timely manner in a form and of a quality 
appropriate to enable it to discharge its 
duties nonexecutive directors have the 
opportunity to influence agendas for board 
discussions and to ensure the amount of 
time spent reviewing strategic and operational 
issues is appropriately balanced scheduled board meetings ad hoc meetings
meetings
attended
total
available
meetings
meetings
attended
total
available
meetings
chairman mike redmond 12 12 2 2
chief executive jonathan milner 12 12 2 2
executive directors jeff iliffe 12 12 2 2
jim warwick 11 12 2 2
nonexecutive directors murray hennessy 11 12 2 2
peter keen 12 12 2 2
tony kouzarides
1
2 4 — —
anthony martin 12 12 2 2
michael ross 10 12 1 2
1 retired 22 october 2012
board meeting attendance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 38
effectiveness continued
how do we make sure our board 
is effective continued
in the event that directors are unable to 
attend a meeting or a conference call they 
receive and read the papers for consideration 
at that meeting and have the opportunity 
to relay their comments and if necessary 
to follow up with the chairman or the 
chief executive officer after the meeting 
director induction programme 
and ongoing training
on joining abcam directors receive 
a comprehensive and tailored induction 
programme the aim of which is to introduce 
them to key executives across the business 
and to enhance their knowledge and 
understanding of the group and its 
activities this includes time with each 
of the executive directors members 
of the emt and a wide range of senior 
management from across the business
the group has a commitment to training and 
all directors executive or nonexecutive 
are encouraged to attend suitable training 
courses at the group’s expense regular 
updates on corporate governance are also 
provided to the board by the group’ s advisors
director independence
in order to assist in securing the recruitment 
and retention of high calibre nonexecutive 
directors prior to the flotation of the company 
in 2005 the company granted options to 
nonexecutive directors to acquire shares 
in the company in addition to fees in the 
period since listing on aim no equitybased 
incentives have been granted to nonexecutive 
directors and there are no plans for any 
corporate governance statement continued
such grants in the future the board 
considers mike redmond murray hennessy 
peter keen anthony martin and michael ross 
to be independent within the meaning of 
the code all directors maintain conflicts 
of interest declarations and any planned 
changes in their interests including 
directorships outside the group are notified 
to the board none of the relationships 
declared are considered to be of a material 
nature to abcam’s business and none 
are therefore deemed to impact on the 
independence of the directors whilst 
the obligation to notify the company is 
immediate the updated conflicts register 
is formally reviewed at board meetings 
on alternate months
the beneficial interests of the directors in 
the share capital of the company are set 
out on page 51 in the opinion of the board 
these shareholdings do not detract from the 
nonexecutive directors’ independent status
performance evaluation
the board undertakes a regular evaluation of 
its own performance and the last review was 
undertaken during the year this concluded 
that the board and its individual members 
continues to perform effectively in an 
environment where there is constructive 
challenge from the nonexecutive directors 
and operates within a framework of sound 
governance and practices which are consistent 
with the principles set out in the code
subjects covered during the review include 
a general overview as to the operation of the 
board opinions on shareholder relationships 
views on the board’s input into strategy 
discussions governance and compliance 
risk management and succession planning 
the board culture and relationships with 
senior management as well as how new 
members are selected and inducted
the chairman holds meetings with 
the nonexecutive directors without 
the executive directors present and 
the nonexecutive directors led by the 
senior independent director meet without 
the chairman present at least annually 
to appraise the chairman’s performance 
with no issues arising from the review 
performed this year 
accountability
what is our approach 
to risk management
the board acknowledges its responsibility 
for safeguarding the shareholders’ investment 
and the group’s assets and has established 
a continuous process for identifying evaluating 
and managing the significant risks the 
group faces 
the board has overall responsibility 
for ensuring the group maintains an 
adequate system of internal control 
and risk management whilst the audit 
committee reviews its effectiveness on 
behalf of the board the implementation 
of internal control systems is the 
responsibility of management 
we have implemented an internal control 
system designed to help ensure
  the effective and efficient operation of 
the group by enabling management to 
respond appropriately to significant risks 
to achieving the group’ s business objectives overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 39
  the safeguarding of assets from 
inappropriate use or from loss and fraud 
and ensuring that liabilities are identified 
and managed
  the quality of internal and external reporting
  compliance with applicable laws and 
regulations and with internal policies on 
the conduct of the group’s business and
  the ability to recover in a timely manner 
from the effects of disasters or major 
accidents which originate outside the 
group’s direct control
our risk management process involves 
the following steps
  risk identification risks are highlighted 
and documented in a centrally managed 
risk register
  risk assessment risks are assessed 
in terms of likelihood of occurrence 
and potential impact on the group and
  risk mitigation required actions are agreed 
and assigned with target deadlines
the risk register and mitigating actions are 
reviewed by the board on a biannual basis 
and by the emt as matters arise 
such a system is designed to manage 
rather than eliminate the risks inherent in 
a fastmoving business and can therefore 
provide only reasonable and not absolute 
assurance against material misstatement 
or loss
the principal risks and uncertainties we have 
identified are set out on pages 25 to 27 
it is recognised that the group is exposed 
to a number of risks wider than those 
listed however we have chosen to disclose 
those of most concern to the business at 
this moment in time and those that have 
been the subject of debate at recent 
board or audit committee meetings 
during the course of its reviews of the system 
of internal control during the year the board 
has not identified nor been advised of 
any failings or weaknesses which it has 
determined to be significant
whilst the group does not currently have a 
separate internal audit function an internal 
controls committee consisting of key 
members of the finance and it teams 
meets on a regular basis with other 
operational managers attending where 
necessary a rolling internal audit of key 
processes has been implemented and 
is carried out by members of the finance 
team the results are reviewed by the 
internal controls committee and reported 
to the audit committee and the necessary 
actions taken to rectify any control 
deficiencies identified
the audit committee reviews the need 
for a separate internal audit function on 
an annual basis and has concluded that 
despite the rate of growth in recent years 
the structure of the group and the level of 
control exercised by the management team 
are currently sufficient such that an internal 
audit function continues to be neither 
necessary nor cost effective at this time 
the directors have taken steps to ensure 
that the group has an appropriate control 
environment for its size and complexity 
the management team will ensure that 
the internal control environment develops 
with the size of the company with respect 
to the identification evaluation and 
monitoring of risk
financial reporting
the board is responsible for reviewing 
and approving the annual report and 
accounts the interim financial information 
and for ensuring they present a balanced 
assessment of the group’s position drafts 
of these reports are provided to the board 
in a timely manner and directors’ feedback 
is discussed and incorporated where 
appropriate prior to publication
whistleblowing procedures
the group operates a whistleblowing 
policy which provides for all employees 
to raise concerns to senior management 
in strict confidence about any unethical 
business practices fraud misconduct or 
wrongdoing they can do so without fear 
of recrimination and the audit committee 
receives any such confidential reports 
there were no whistleblowing reports 
throughout 201213 and none up to 
the date of this report
relations with shareholders
dialogue with 
institutional shareholders
the board believes it is important to have 
open communications with shareholders 
to this end the chief executive officer 
and chief financial officer working in 
consultation with the company’s corporate 
and public relations advisors make 
themselves available and expect to meet 
with shareholders at least twice a year 
where appropriate the company consults 
with major shareholders on significant issues
members of the board develop an 
understanding of the views of major 
shareholders through any direct contact 
that may be initiated by shareholders 
shareholder feedback presented by the 
chief executive officer and chief financial 
officer following each analyst and investor 
roadshow or through analysts’ and brokers’ 
briefings we also regularly host investor 
days at our cambridge uk office 
the board also receives feedback from 
the group’s brokers and financial public 
relations advisor who in turn obtain 
feedback from analysts and brokers 
following investor roadshows 
numis securities limited remains as the 
company’s nominated advisor financial 
advisor and joint broker peel hunt llp 
remains as joint broker with numis 
securities limited
constructive use of the agm
the board actively encourages the 
participation of all directors in the agm 
which is the principal forum for dialogue 
with private shareholders a presentation is 
made outlining recent developments in the 
business and an open question and answer 
session follows to enable shareholders to 
ask questions about the business in general committee members date of appointment
meetings 
attended
in the year
available 
meetings
peter keen chairman october 2005 2 2
murray hennessy january 2012 2 2
anthony martin january 2012 2 2
michael ross january 2012 1 2
audit committee
the board relies on the audit 
committee to provide effective 
governance over risk management 
and external financial reporting to 
monitor the integrity of the financial 
statements to review the internal 
controls and risk management 
systems and to report its findings 
and conclusions to the board 
i am pleased to present my report 
on the work and operation of 
the committee for the year 
with particular emphasis 
on the specific matters 
we have examined
peter keen
audit committee chairman
who is on our committee
  a review of the group’s policy on the 
engagement of the external auditor to 
supply nonaudit services was undertaken 
together with an assessment of its 
implementation during the year
  a report was received from the internal 
controls committee following a review 
of the application of the group’s internal 
control policies across each of the newly 
acquired entities
  the committee recommended to the 
board that at the end of the 201213 
financial year the contract to provide 
external audit and taxation advisory and 
compliance services for the group should 
be put out to tender for the purposes 
of good corporate governance
  the requirement for a formal internal 
audit function was considered 
what is the action plan 
for 201314
the committee continues to remain focused 
on the audit assurance and risk process 
within the business we intend to continue 
the debate around risk tolerance and 
appetite to ensure the board maintains 
sound risk management and internal controls 
we will also continue to keep under review 
the need for a separate internal audit function 
and will consider the findings of internal 
reviews of the operations in burlingame 
hong kong and tokyo which are planned 
for 201314
external auditor
in accordance with the principles of 
good governance contained in the code 
the audit committee seeks to ensure the 
continued independence and objectivity of 
the group’s external auditor the committee 
also recognises that it needs to ensure that the 
group observes due process from a corporate 
governance standpoint in their appointment 
consequently as noted above the committee 
decided during the year to recommend that 
a tender process be undertaken in respect 
of the group’s audit and taxation advisory 
and compliance services for the year ending 
30 june 2014 whilst the engagement 
partner has been rotated in line with 
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 40
the audit committee is required to include 
one financially qualified member as recognised 
by the consultative committee of accountancy 
bodies currently the audit committee 
chairman peter keen fulfils this requirement 
peter is deemed by the board to have recent 
and relevant financial experience as he is a 
qualified chartered accountant with more than 
28 years’ experience in the financing and 
management of biotechnology companies
other members of the board the group 
financial controller and senior representatives 
of the external auditor attend audit committee 
meetings by invitation in order to ensure that 
all the information required by the audit 
committee for it to operate effectively is 
available representatives of the group’s 
external auditor meet with the audit committee 
at least twice a year without any executive 
directors or other company management 
being present
during the period under review the committee 
has met twice on a formal basis and a number 
of times informally 
what has the committee done 
since the last report
  the composition of the committee was 
reviewed to ensure that it contains the 
appropriate balance of knowledge skills 
and experience to support the business
  a review of the performance of the 
committee was undertaken which 
confirmed that it is operating effectively
  any formal announcements relating to 
the group’s financial performance and 
any significant financial reporting judgements 
were reviewed this included consideration 
of a report from the external auditor on their 
audit and review of the june 2012 annual 
report and financial statements and the 
december 2012 halfyearly financial report
  the scope of the audit work to be 
undertaken by the auditor was reviewed 
and agreed along with the audit fee
  a review of the performance of the 
auditor was undertaken assessing their 
independence and objectivity and the 
effectiveness of the audit process overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 41
nomination committee
i am pleased to report below on 
the main areas of focus for the 
nomination committee during 
the year the committee’s 
principal role is to keep under 
review and make recommendations 
on the composition of the board 
to ensure that it has the full 
range of competencies 
knowledge and experience 
required for the direction and 
oversight of the business the 
committee also oversees senior 
management development and 
succession plans to ensure that 
there is continuity of appropriate 
executive resource immediately 
below board level
mike redmond
nomination committee chairman
guidelines from the auditing practices 
board the current firms have been 
the auditors of the company since its 
formation in 1998the tender process 
will enable the group to benchmark the 
current level of service fees and value 
being delivered by our existing auditor and 
provide a range of insight and advice from 
other advisors
internal audit
abcam does not currently have a 
formal internal audit function an internal 
controls committee consisting of key 
members of the finance and it teams 
meets on a regular basis with other 
operational managers attending 
where necessary in addition a rolling 
programme of auditing key processes 
has been implemented and is carried 
out by members of the finance team 
involving visits to all worldwide locations 
across the group the results are 
reviewed by the internal controls 
committee and reported to the 
audit committee and where necessary 
actions are taken to rectify any control 
deficiencies identified
having reviewed these arrangements the 
committee has concluded that despite 
the rate of growth in recent years the 
structure of the group and the level of 
control exercised by the management 
team means that the establishment 
of a formal internal audit function is 
not necessary at present the need 
for such a formal function will however 
continue to be kept under review
other services
our policy is to ensure we appoint 
the advisor who we believe is in the 
position to best advise the company 
on the particular matter in question 
as a consequence of the geographic 
expansion of the group other nonaudit 
fees were paid to deloitte during the year 
mainly in respect of tax and corporate 
finance advice in addition we have 
commissioned considerable work 
including tax advisory and executive 
remuneration advice from other 
professional service firms including 
pricewaterhousecoopers llp and 
ernst  young llp 
committee members date of appointmentresignation
meetings 
attended
available 
meetings
mike redmond chairman november 2009 1 1
peter keen october 2005 1 1
tony kouzarides retired october 2012 — —
michael ross january 2012 — 1
in addition a number of ad hoc meetings were held during the year
who is on our committee
what has the committee done 
during the year
  conducted a thorough review and 
debated board skills and diversity to 
ensure the board has the right balance 
of skills and experience to support the 
future development of the business 
into the world’s leading provider 
of life science reagents tools
  reviewed the board and committee 
composition following the recent 
nonexecutive director appointments 
and retirement of existing directors
  overseen the recruitment process for 
the group’s chief marketing officer 
which is a new position on the emt
what is the action plan 
for 201314
  continue to support succession plans 
and development of the executive 
director team
  continue to drive the understanding 
of talent across the organisation and 
support our development programme 
for senior managers
  continue to review ongoing knowledge 
and training for all directors
  continue to ensure that we plan for 
the evolution of non executive directors 
over the medium term to maintain the 
appropriate mix of skills
reelection of directors
all directors are subject to election by 
shareholders at the first agm after their 
appointment and to reelection thereafter 
at intervals of no more than three years 
nonexecutive directors who have served 
longer than nine years are subject to annual 
reelection notwithstanding the above rules 
a minimum of onethird of the directors 
must retire by rotation each year
the names of directors submitted for 
election or reelection at this year’s agm 
are provided in the other disclosures on 
page 51 and their biographical details 
are shown on pages 32 and 33
the company’s detailed policies with 
regards to reelection of directors are 
set out within its articles of association 
which are available for download from 
the company’s investor relations website 
wwwabcamplccom directors’ remuneration report
our philosophy for remuneration 
is to attract and retain leaders 
who are focused and encouraged 
to deliver business priorities within 
a framework that is aligned with 
the long term interests of the 
company’s shareholders against 
a background of the increasingly 
international footprint of our 
business our aim is to ensure 
that our remuneration packages 
are appropriate to incentivise high 
levels of performance and attract 
professionals of the calibre 
required to develop a fast 
growing internationally 
competitive business
who is on our committee
committee members date of appointment
meetings
attended
total
available
meetings
peter keen chairman october 2005 3 3
murray hennessy january 2012 3 3
anthony martin january 2012 3 3
in addition a number of ad hoc meetings were held during the year
this report has been prepared in accordance 
with schedule 8 to the accounting regulations 
under the companies act 2006 although not 
required by the aim listing rules to provide 
all the information detailed below the directors 
have chosen to apply the principles relating 
to directors’ remuneration disclosures in the 
code as required by the act a resolution 
to approve the report will be proposed at the 
agm of the company at which the financial 
statements will be approved
the act requires the auditor to report to 
the company’s members on certain parts 
of the directors’ remuneration report and 
to state whether in their opinion those parts 
of the report have been properly prepared 
in accordance with the accounting regulations 
the report has therefore been divided 
into separate sections for unaudited 
and audited information
unaudited information
remuneration committee
what has the committee done since 
the last report
in line with its remit the following key matters 
were considered by the committee
  agreement of 201213 bonuses
  review and agreement of executive 
director salary and cash bonus 
for 201314
  review and agreement of the chairman’s 
remuneration for 201314
  review of nonexecutive director fees 
for 201314
  agreement to and finalisation of the vesting 
level for the 2009 award under the ltip 
which matured in november 2012
  agreement to and finalisation of the 
vesting level of the earnings per share 
component of the 2010 awards under the 
ltips which mature in december 2013
  consideration of the future operation 
of the staff profit sharing scheme
  review of pension entitlements for those 
executive directors who have elected 
to preserve their life time allowances 
for pension contributions
  approval of the 201213 directors’ 
remuneration report and
  review of the proposal for which shareholder 
approval will be sought at the 2013 agm 
for the operation of the ltip for a further 
period of five years
what is the action plan for 201314
  the latest benchmarking of executive 
directors’ salary levels took place in 2010 
and the committee intends to carry out 
a new comparative study to support the 
201415 salary review
  continue to review the operation 
of the executive bonus scheme and 
  review remuneration structures where 
appropriate across all group companies
remuneration policy for the 
executive directors
the committee aims to set levels of 
remuneration for executive directors that 
are sufficient to attract retain and motivate 
executive directors of the calibre required 
to deliver the business strategy individual 
remuneration packages are structured to 
align rewards with the performance of the 
company and the interests of the shareholders 
and to be appropriate for the size and 
complexity of the group no director is 
involved in deciding his own remuneration 
the main principles are to
  ensure that salaries are set at a 
market competitive level relative 
to external comparators
  support a high performance culture with 
commensurate rewards appropriately 
linked to performance
  maintain an appropriate balance 
of fixed and performancerelated pay 
which delivers over the short medium 
and longer term with the balance 
becoming more long term and more 
highly performance related with seniority
  align longterm rewards with shareholders 
by taking account of measures that reflect 
shareholder interests and
  ensure that the overall package reflects 
market practice and takes account of levels 
of remuneration elsewhere in the group
the policy is that a substantial proportion of 
the package should be performance related 
the chart on page 43 illustrates the proportion 
of the remuneration package provided in 
201213 comprising fixed and variable 
elements of remuneration
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 42
peter keen
remuneration committee chairman overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
  being the total of the cash award and the deferred share award which was introduced for the first time in 201213 the percentage of salary for ontarget 
performance for the cash award was 575 201112 575 and for the deferred share award 20 201112 £nil
  the stretch value of the ltip is based on the full value of the award when it was made in 201213 and assumes that the market value of the shares will be equal on 
the date of release to the value on the date of award the ontarget calculation assumes that 50 of the ltips will be released based on satisfaction of the relevant 
performance conditions on this basis the value of shares vesting for ontarget performance would be 25 of salary 201112 50
the following table provides a summary of the key elements of the remuneration package
element purpose operation
salary to provide competitive fixed remuneration 
that will attract and retain key employees 
and reflect their experience and position 
in the company
reviewed every twelve months
set against appropriate market comparators
linked to individual performance contribution 
and current market conditions
annual bonus to incentivise achievement of annual 
objectives which support both the short 
and longterm strategy of the company
maximum bonus potential is set having considered  
market levels
majority of the bonus is based on key elements of the 
company’s financial performance the balance being 
based on individual performance targets which are 
closely aligned to the company’s strategy
equitybased incentives to incentivise executives to achieve 
superior returns to shareholders over  
a threeyear period 
share awards are made annually to senior executives 
and other senior management and are based on 
appropriate performance measures
to retain key individuals and align 
interests with shareholders
benefits to provide competitive benefits that will 
attract and retain key employees and 
reflect their experience and position 
in the company
a flexible benefitssalary sacrifice scheme is in place 
allowing all employees including executive directors 
to choose a variety of benefits to suit individual needs 
including pension contributions and various insurances
the company recognises that executive directors may be invited to become nonexecutive directors of other companies and that this can 
help broaden the skills and experience of a director subject to confirmation that such appointments will not impair the directors’ ability to 
perform their duties executive directors are normally permitted to accept external appointments with the prior approval of the board and 
may retain the fees for such appointments
committee members date of appointment
meetings
attended
total
available
meetings
peter keen chairman october 2005 3 3
murray hennessy january 2012 3 3
anthony martin january 2012 3 3
in addition a number of ad hoc meetings were held during the year
201314
£000
201213
£000 
jonathan milner 360 319
jeff iliffe 260 227
jim warwick 260 239
 for 201213 jonathan milner waived an increase of £103000 his bonus arrangements and other benefits were based on the prewaived figure of £319000
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 43
amendments to base salaries for 201314 see page 44 directors’ remuneration report continued
basic salary
the executive directors’ basic salaries 
are normally reviewed annually by the 
committee with any revisions becoming 
effective on 1 july each year taking into 
account individual performance market 
conditions and the level of increases 
applicable to other employees in the company
salaries were set relative to comparable 
roles in companies of a similar market 
capitalisation and against similar roles 
in companies within the industry sector 
the most recent independent consultants’ 
report was commissioned in may 2010 
and concluded that the salaries of the 
executive directors had fallen below those 
of a comparator group of companies 
after consultation with the company’s 
major shareholders the committee 
approved salary increases to take effect 
from 1 july 2010 to the lower quartile 
level of the comparator group
the committee has previously stated its 
intention to realign salaries to the median 
of the comparator group but since that time 
little progress has been made to bridge the 
gap with no salary increase being provided in 
201112 and 3 in 201213 the committee 
has agreed that executive directors’ salaries 
should be increased for 201314 to their 
respective median levels from the 2010 review 
notwithstanding that the group is now much 
larger and complex than was the case three 
years ago a new study will be commissioned 
to support the 201415 salary review
the amendments to base salaries for 201314 
are shown in the table on page 43
executive directors’ service contracts 
which include details of remuneration 
will be available for inspection at the 
forthcoming agm in november 2013
annual bonus payments
the bonus payable to executive directors 
is based on the financial performance of the 
group and the achievement of individual 
performance targets related to the strategic 
objectives for each individual the committee 
establishes the objectives that must be 
met for each financial year the maximum 
bonus and the proportion paid for ontarget 
performance are considered in the light of 
market practice for companies of a similar 
size and industry sector
during 201213 and after consultation with 
shareholders a revised annual bonus plan 
was introduced which included an opportunity 
to earn cash awards and deferred share 
awards subject to performance conditions 
having reduced the ltip award by at least 
50 the committee increased the maximum 
annual bonus from 110 to 150 of salary 
for the executive directors the maximum 
bonus potential in relation to a cash award 
is 110 of salary in addition to which an 
amount of up to 40 of salary can be paid 
in shares subject to a two year deferral
the cash awards for 201213 provided 
a maximum bonus of 110 of salary 
with 773 of the maximum award 85 
of salary payable on the achievement 
of stretching eps targets and 227 
of the maximum award 25 of salary 
on achievement of personal targets 
which included the successful execution 
of strategic initiatives no payment was due 
under the epsbased bonus if eps was 
less than 95 of target and the maximum 
payment was due at 110 of target
the deferred share award was a new 
component in 201213 with a maximum 
award equal to 40 of salary dependent 
on oneyear eps performance against a 
range set by the committee the deferred 
share awards will normally become 
exercisable at the end of a two year holding 
period subject to continued employment
as a percentage of salary the bonus 
payable to each executive director for 
201213 amounted to 783 for the 
cash awards 533 based on eps 
performance and 25 for the achievement 
of personal targets and 251 for the 
deferred share awards
equitybased incentives
equitybased incentives are issued 
to the executive directors on a regular 
basis in the period since listing on aim 
no equitybased incentives have been 
granted to nonexecutive directors 
and there are no plans for any such 
grants in the future
the abcam plc 2005 plan
the abcam plc 2005 plan the plan 
was adopted prior to flotation in 2005 
and amended in 2008 to make it more 
tax efficient for usbased employees 
all options granted under the plan since 
flotation have been based on outperformance 
of the ftse aim allshare index measured 
on the third anniversary of the date of grant 
if the target is achieved then options will 
be exercisable during the next seven years 
subject to the rules of the scheme if the 
target is not met at the third anniversary 
then performance will be monitored on 
certain dates over the next twelve months 
if the target is met on any of those dates 
then the options become exercisable if the 
target is not met on any of those dates the 
options will lapse on the fourth anniversary
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 44 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
in the year under review no options 
were granted under the plan to the 
executive directors
the graph on page 44 shows the 
performance against the ftse aim allshare 
index for the options issued since flotation 
which have yet to vest and which have not 
been forfeited subsequently if all the options 
had crystallised at 31 august 2013 then all 
performance conditions in relation to the 
options would have been met details of 
these options are set out in note 28 to the 
financial statements
following the acquisition of epitomics 
we have assessed the applicability of our 
current share schemes to our staff based in 
the us independent advice has confirmed 
that typical market practice in the us is 
to operate a scheme with vesting after two 
three and four years rather than our current 
arrangements which vest after three years 
permission from shareholders was granted 
at the agm held in october 2012 to amend 
the terms of the plan to allow the granting 
of such options and the plan has been 
rolled out to all eligible staff within abcam’s 
usbased offices
saye scheme
the company has previously established 
a nondiscretionary hmrc approved 
saye scheme in which all uk employees 
including the executive directors can 
participate as at 30 june 2013 no options 
were outstanding under the saye scheme
long term incentive plan 
the ltip includes performance conditions 
which comply with guidelines and best 
practice governing the grant of share based 
incentives in a listed company to the extent 
to which the committee considers such 
practice to be appropriate to the group 
the maximum level of award being the 
aggregate market value of shares subject 
to the award at the date of grant that can 
be granted to an eligible employee under 
the ltip in any financial year is limited 
to 150 of that employee’s salary
year of award
tsr awards eps awards
no of
companies
in
comparator
group
position
of 75th
percentile
abcam
position
median
position
tsr award
 vesting
 
eps growth
per annum
eps award
 vesting
2010 16 475 14 850 nil 159 173
2011 250 6325 158 1255 nil 122 nil
2012 na na na na na 212 100
following a review of the operation of 
the ltip  the committee concluded that 
earnings growth is the key financial measure 
for the company and should therefore be 
the core performance measure for both the 
shortterm and longterm incentive plans 
it is transparent to shareholders and it 
underpins strong dividend distribution 
to shareholders and capital growth
therefore after consultation with our major 
shareholders the committee decided that 
ltip awards for 201213 would have no 
total shareholder return tsr element with 
100 of the award being based on eps 
targets these awards have proportional 
vesting between 10 and 20 eps growth 
per annum equating to 331 to 728 
growth over the three year vesting period
the committee plan to make ltip 
awards on the same basis subject to eps 
performance conditions to be determined 
at the time of the award
the ltip was approved by shareholders in 
november 2008 with the authority to grant 
awards under it for the following five years 
the plan has worked well in meeting its 
objectives and consequently a resolution 
will be put to the agm in november to 
renew the authority to make awards under 
the plan for a further five year period
the eps condition
in respect of the 201213 awards the eps 
awards the number of shares that vest will 
depend on the eps growth of the company 
over the vesting period
  at an average of less than 10 growth 
per annum equating to 331 growth 
over the period none of the eps awards 
will vest
  at average growth per annum of 20 
equating to total growth of 728 
the eps awards will vest in full and
  at growth rates between these 
two figures the eps awards will 
vest proportionately
the company regularly monitors its 
performance against these conditions
the 2009 tsr awards and eps awards 
vested at 963 in november 2012 having 
achieved a tsr ranking within the median 
quartile and an eps growth per annum 
of 316
the table below illustrates the percentage 
of tsr and eps awards which would have 
vested if the awards had crystallised as at 
30 june 2013
share incentive plan sip
abcam operates an hmrc approved 
sip for all uk employees under the sip  
awards are made as follows
free share awards
annual awards are made to ukbased 
staff with a market value of up to £3000 
each awards take the form of a conditional 
entitlement to shares and will vest after 
three years’ continuous employment with 
the company
partnership and matching 
share awards
all ukbased employees are given the 
opportunity to invest up to £1500 per 
annum to acquire new shares in the 
company at market value if these shares 
are held for three years and the employee 
remains employed by the company during 
that time then they will also receive an 
additional share for each share acquired
the abcam 2009 company share 
option plan csop
the group operates an hmrc approved 
csop for ukbased employees of the 
company with a maximum of £30000 of 
market value options granted per employee 
no csop options were granted to executive 
directors in the year since they have all 
reached the aforementioned £30000 limit
share options granted under the csop 
to other employees of the group excluding 
executive directors vest either on the 
samebasis as those under the plan 
being outperformance of the ftse 
aim allshare index
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 45 directors’ remuneration report continued
pension contributions 
and other benefits
the company operates a flexible benefits 
scheme which the executive directors are 
entitled to contributions to be made by the 
company on their behalf equivalent to 12 
of basic salary the executive director can 
choose how to spend this contribution 
amongst the specific benefits available and 
also has the option to sacrifice an element 
of basic pay to make additional pension 
contributions into the company’s money 
purchase pension scheme or to purchase 
other benefits as a result of the salary 
sacrificed and used to purchase additional 
pension contributions the company’s 
national insurance liability is reduced and 
the benefit of this reduction is added as 
a contribution to each executive director’s 
pension fund this amount is included 
within the employer’s pension contribution 
figures disclosed in the table of remuneration 
details on page 47
where executive directors have elected 
to preserve their current lifetime allowance 
for pension contributions meaning that no 
further pension contributions can be made 
into their pension schemes then they are 
entitled to draw an amount in salary or 
other benefits equivalent to the cost to 
the company of their pension entitlement 
as adjusted for employer’s national 
insurance contributions
directors’ contracts
it is the company’s policy that executive 
directors should have contracts with an 
indefinite term providing for a maximum 
of six months’ notice however it may be 
necessary occasionally to offer longer notice 
periods to new directors all executive 
directors currently have contracts which are 
subject to six months’ notice by either party
the details of executive directors’ 
contracts are summarised below
in the event of early termination 
the directors’ contracts provide for 
statutory compensation payments 
all nonexecutive directors including the 
chairman serve under letters of appointment 
and either party can terminate on one month’ s 
written notice the details of nonexecutives’ 
contracts are summarised below
the remuneration of the nonexecutive 
directors is determined by the board within 
the limits set by the articles of association 
and is based on information on fees paid in 
similar companies and the skills and expected 
time commitment of the individual concerned
neither the chairman nor the nonexecutive 
directors have any right to compensation on 
the early termination of their appointment
in addition to the basic fees additional fees 
for committee duties are paid to reflect the 
extra responsibilities attached to these roles 
since the company’ s listing on the aim market 
in 2005 the nonexecutive directors do not 
participate in any of the group’s incentive 
or share schemes and are not eligible to join 
the pension scheme nor do they receive 
any other benefits the fees are reviewed 
in july of each year and fees for 201213 
and 201112 are shown in the table below
basic and committee fees for the chairman 
and nonexecutive directors for 201314 
will increase by approximately 4 effective 
from 1 july 2013
audited information
the following information has been audited 
by the company’s auditor deloitte llp  
as required by the companies act 2006
aggregate directors’ remuneration
the total amounts for directors’ remuneration 
are summarised below
date of contract
notice
period
months
executive
jonathan milner june 2000 6
jeff iliffe november 2007 6
jim warwick september 2001 6
date of contract
notice
period
months
nonexecutive
mike redmond march 2009 1
murray hennessy november 2011 1
peter keen october 2005 1
anthony martin september 2011 1
michael ross november 2011 1
2013
£000
2012
£000
directors’ remuneration
emoluments 1506 1357
gains on exercise of share options 1833 —
money purchase pension contributions 50 124
3389 1481
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 46 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
201213
£000
201112
£000
chairman 68 66
nonexecutive director basic fee 32 32
additional fee per annum
– chairman of audit committee 6 6
– chairman of remuneration committee 5 5
– chairman of nomination committee 2 4
– member of audit or remuneration committee 3 3
– member of nomination committee 1 2
remuneration of the nonexecutive directors
directors’ emoluments
feebasic 
salary
1
 
£000 
benefits 
in kind 
£000 
performance
payments 
£000
pension
contributions
12
£000
total 
2013
£000 
total
2012
£000
executive
jonathan milner 206 2 250 — 458 433
jeff iliffe 207 2 177 50 436 395
jim warwick 239 2 187 — 428 408
nonexecutive
mike redmond 70 — — — 70 70
tim dye
3
— — — — — 13
murray hennessy 37 — — — 37 24
peter keen 44 — — — 44 44
tony kouzarides
4
10 — — — 10 33
anthony martin 37 — — — 37 27
michael ross 36 — — — 36 23
mark webster
3
— — — — — 11
886 6 614 50 1556 1481
1  as previously described the executive directors are remunerated through the company’s flexible benefits scheme under which they can elect to switch basic 
salary into pension contributions and other benefits the basic salary entitlement of each executive director during the year was jonathan milner £216000 
jeff iliffe £227000 and jim warwick £239000 for 201213 jonathan milner waived an increase in salary of £103000 2012 £100000 which would have 
taken his salary up to £319000 for 201213 and 201112 his bonus and benefits were based on his salary prior to the waiver
2  from 6 april 2012 jonathan milner and jim warwick have both elected to preserve their current lifetime allowances for pension contributions meaning that no further 
pension contributions have been made since this date in 201213 the company has made contributions to charities of its choosing equivalent to the amount saved
3 resigned from the board 21 october 2011
4 resigned from the board 22 october 2012
gain on ltip
exercise
2013
£000
gain on other
scheme exercise
2013
£000
total gain
on exercise
2013
£000
gain on
exercise
2012
£000
jeff iliffe 433 81 514 —
jim warwick 71 551 622 —
tony kouzarides — 697 697 —
504 1329 1833 —
  a number of the share options exercised were unapproved options under the terms of these awards the employee was liable for payment of the associated 
employer’s national insurance ni charge these gains are therefore shown net of any employer’s ni and represent the taxable gains
directors’ share options
aggregate emoluments disclosed above do not include any amounts for the value of options to acquire ordinary shares in the company 
granted to or held by the directors the gains on options exercised during the year are as follows
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 47 directors’ remuneration report continued
directors’ share options continued
details of options over 02 pence ordinary shares in the company for directors who served during the year all of which had vested before 
the start of the year are detailed in the table below
the market price of the ordinary shares at 30 june 2013 was 453 pence and the range during the year was 355 pence to 474 pence
vested options over 02 pence ordinary shares for directors
name of director
number of
options
at 30 june
2012 granted exercised
number of
options
at 30 june
2013
exercise 
price 
pence 
date
from
which
exercisable 
expiry
date
tony kouzarides 200000 — 200000 — 250 31 jan 06 29 sep 15
jeff iliffe 232715 — 22255 210460 624 8 nov 10 7 nov 17
jonathan milner 230020 — — 230020 826 8 may 11 7 may 18
jim warwick 175010 — 175010 — 624 8 nov 10 7 nov 17
837745 — 397265 440480 
name of director
value of 
deferred share 
award 100 
target 
£000
percent vesting
based on 
eps achieved
value of
 deferred share
award vested
£000
number
of awards
jonathan milner 128 627 80 17278
jeff iliffe 91 627 57 12262
jim warwick 96 627 60 12931
315 197 42471
  the number awarded is based on the 30day average share price up to the deemed grant date being the date these financial statements were approved
name of director
number of
awards
at 30 june
2012 awarded exercised lapsed
number of
awards
at 30 june
2013
number of
vested
awards
at 30 june
2013
jonathan milner 535501 39326 — 5103 569724 359162
jeff iliffe 429215 28495 105000 4361 348349 174384
jim warwick 440656 30100 16590 4609 449557 291911
1405372 97921 121590 14073 1367630 825457
 the market price at the date of award for all awards made during the year was 385 pence
 these relate to the 2008 and 2009 awards and are included in the number of awards at 30 june 2013 in the table above
annual bonus plan deferred share award
an annual bonus plan was introduced in 201213 under which the executive directors are eligible to receive up to a maximum of 40 
salary as a deferred share award tested against stretching oneyear eps targets the table below summarises the resulting vesting of 
the 201213 award based on the eps performance at 30 june 2013 these will be exercisable at the end of a further twoyear holding 
period subject to continued employment
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 48
ltip awards
details of ltip awards for directors who served during the year are detailed below
full details of the operation of the ltip  including performance conditions are set out on page 45 in the unaudited information contained 
within the directors’ remuneration report
ltip awards for directors overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
49 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
sip
the following table sets out the shares purchased and awarded under the sip in respect of each of the executive directors who have all purchased or been awarded shares on the 
same dates and at the same prices throughout the operation of the scheme full details of the operation of the sip are set out on page 45 in the unaudited information contained 
within the directors’ remuneration report
date of award date of release 
share
price at
date of
purchase of
partnership
shares and
award of
matching
shares
pence 
number
conditionally
awarded
shares
as at
30 june
2012
free shares
conditionally
awarded
during the
period
matching
shares
conditionally
awarded
during the
period
conditionally
awarded
shares
transferred
to beneficial
ownership
during the
period
number
conditionally
awarded
shares
as at
30 june
2013
number
beneficially
owned
shares
as at
30 june
2012
partnership
shares
purchased
during the
period
dividend
shares
acquired
during the
period 
conditionally
awarded
shares
transferred
to beneficial
ownership
during the
period
number
beneficially
owned
shares
as at
30 june
2013
total
shares
held in sip
as at
30 june
2012
total
shares
held in sip
as at
30 june
2013
7 nov 08 8 nov 11 924 — — — — — 3245 — — — 3245 3245 3245
27 nov 08 28 nov 11 970 — — — — — 3090 — — — 3090 3090 3090
8 dec 08 8 dec 08 950 — — — — — 30 — — — 30 30 30
29 apr 09 29 apr 09 1320 — — — — — 25 — — — 25 25 25
5 nov 09 6 nov 12 1870 800 — — 800 — 800 — — 800 1600 1600 1600
9 nov 09 9 nov 12 1808 1655 — — 1655 — — — — 1655 1655 1655 1655
15 dec 09 15 dec 09 1998 — — — — — 60 — — — 60 60 60
26 apr 10 26 apr 10 2432 — — — — — 40 — — — 40 40 40
3 dec 10 3 dec 13 3900 385 — — — 385 385 — — — 385 770 770
2 dec 10 2 dec 13 3450 869 — — — 869 — — — — — 869 869
2 dec 10 2 dec 10 3450 — — — — — 75 — — — 75 75 75
19 may 11 19 may 11 4018 — — — — — 42 — — — 42 42 42
26 oct 11 26 oct 14 3448 1306 — — — 1306 436 — — — 436 1742 1742
15 dec 11 15 dec 14 3338 — — — — — 150 — — — 150 150 150
26 apr 12 26 apr 15 3648 — — — — — 61 — — — 61 61 61
26 oct 12 26 oct 15 3811 — 787 393 — 1180 — 393 — — 393 — 1573
29 nov 12 29 nov 12 3593 — — — — — — — 182 — 182 — 182
8 may 13 8 may 13 4507 — — — — — — — 66 — 66 — 66
5015 787 393 2455 3740 8439 393 248 2455 11535 13454 15275
 all share prices and numbers of shares awarded or purchased prior to november 2010 have been restated for the impact of the five for one share subdivision abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
other disclosures
the following additional disclosures are 
required by the companies act 2006 or have 
been included voluntarily in compliance with 
the uk corporate governance code 2010 
or the disclosure and transparency rules 
these disclosures are not required by the 
aim listing rules
principal activities 
and business review
abcam is a producer and distributor of 
highquality researchgrade antibodies and 
associated protein research products which 
are essential tools for life scientists enabling 
them to analyse components of living cells 
at the molecular level
the group sells principally through the internet 
to customers across the world and now has 
an online catalogue of products sourced from 
over 400 of the world’ s leading manufacturers 
academic laboratories and institutes following 
its recent acquisitions a growing proportion 
of revenues come from its own production 
facilities it also offers a custom production 
service to meet customers’ specific 
requirements providing solutions for research 
and diagnostic applications the catalogue 
includes a growing range of nonprimary 
antibody products such as proteins peptides 
lysates immunoassays and other kits products 
are available for life science research and are 
distributed to academic and commercial users 
a highly developed ecommerce platform 
which includes regional websites for the 
chinese and japanese markets allows 
customers to access uptodate and 
detailed technical product data sheets
the subsidiary undertakings of the group 
in the year are listed in note 15 to the 
financial statements 
the companies act 2006 requires the 
company to set out in this report a fair 
view of the business of the group during 
the financial year ended 30 june 2013 
including an analysis of the position of the group 
at the end of the financial year and a description 
of the principal risks and uncertainties facing the 
group known as a business review
the information that fulfils the business review 
requirements is incorporated by reference 
and can be found in the following sections
  chairman’s statement on page 10
  chief executive officer’s review 
on pages 11 to 19
  financial review on pages 20 to 24
  principal risks and uncertainties 
on pages 25 to 27 and
  financial risk management in note 27 
to the financial statements
pages 1 to 52 inclusive together with the 
sections of the annual report incorporated 
by reference consist of a directors’ report 
that has been drawn up and presented 
in accordance with and in reliance upon 
applicable english company law and the 
liabilities of the directors in connection with 
that report shall be subject to the limitations 
and restrictions provided by such law
other information to be disclosed in the 
directors’ report is given in this section
dividends
as detailed in the chairman’s statement 
the directors recommend a final dividend 
of 510 pence 2012 436 pence per ordinary 
share to be paid on 29 november 2013 
to shareholders on the register on 
8 november 2013 t ogether with the interim 
dividend of 194 pence per share paid on 
19 april 2013 this makes a combined dividend 
for the year of 704 pence 2012 605 pence 
capital structure
details of the authorised and issued 
share capital together with details of the 
movements in the company’s issued share 
capital during the year are shown in note 24 
the company has one class of ordinary 
share which carries no right to fixed income 
each share carries the right to one vote at 
general meetings of the company
other than specific lockins and orderly 
marketing provisions negotiated with vendors 
in connection with acquisitions made by the 
company there are no specific restrictions 
on the size of a holding nor on the transfer 
of shares which are both governed by the 
general provisions of the articles of association 
and prevailing legislation the directors are 
not aware of any agreements between holders 
of the company’s shares that may result in 
restrictions on the transfer of securities or 
on voting rights
details of employee share schemes are set out 
in note 28 shares held by the abcam employee 
share benefit trust abstain from voting
no person has any special rights of control 
over the company’s share capital and all 
issued shares are fully paid
acquisition of the company’s 
own shares
at the end of the year the directors had 
authority under the shareholders’ resolutions 
of 22 october 2012 to purchase through the 
market 19820000 of the company’ s ordinary 
shares provided that
i  the amount paid for each share exclusive 
of expenses shall not be more than the 
higher of 1 5 above the average market 
value for the five business days before the 
date on which the contract for the purchase 
is made and 2 an amount equal to the 
higher of the price of the last independent 
trade and current independent bid as 
derived from the aim appendix to the daily 
official list of the london stock exchange 
or less than 02 pence per share and
ii  the authority expires at the conclusion 
of the agm of the company to be held 
on 8 november 2013 
no shares were purchased under the above 
authority during the year under review 
substantial shareholdings
on 30 august 2013 the company had been 
notified in accordance with chapter 5 of the 
disclosure and transparency rules of the 
voting rights as a shareholder of the company 
as set out below excluding directors’ 
interests which are set out opposite
change of control
all of abcam’s equitybased plans contain 
provisions relating to a change of control 
under the ltip  outstanding awards would 
normally be released on a change of control 
subject to satisfaction of any performance 
conditions at that time in addition depending 
on the achievement of performance conditions 
other sharebased payment arrangements 
may vest on change of control but this is 
subject to the approval and exercise of the 
discretion of the remuneration committee
other than some oem supplier agreements 
which have an option to be terminated the 
company is not party to any agreements which 
take effect alter or terminate upon a change of 
control of the company following a takeover 
bid there are no agreements between the 
company and its directors or employees 
providing for compensation for loss of office 
or employment whether through resignation 
purported redundancy or otherwise that 
occurs because of a takeover bid
appointment and authority 
of directors
with regard to the appointment and replacement 
of directors the company is governed by its 
articles of association the companies act and 
related legislation and although not obliged to 
do so as an aim listed company has chosen 
to follow the principles set out in the code 
substantial shareholdings
number of ordinary 
shares held 
percentage of issued
share capital
baillie gifford 17348852 870
blackrock investment management 15020171 753
standard life investments 12120638 608
trowe price global investments 9745684 489
william blair  company 8154603 409
wasatch advisors 7059867 354
50 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
51
wherever possible the articles themselves 
may be amended by special resolution of the 
shareholders the powers of directors are 
described in the main board terms of reference 
copies of which are available on request
directors
the directors who served throughout the 
year except as noted were as follows
  mike redmond
  jonathan milner
  jeff iliffe
  jim warwick
  murray hennessy 
  peter keen
  tony kouzarides retired 22 october 2012
  anthony martin 
  michael ross 
brief biographical descriptions of the 
directors are set out on pages 32 and 33
the company’s articles of association 
require that a minimum of onethird of the 
directors must retire by rotation each year 
at the agm to be held on 8 november 2013 
jonathan milner and jeff iliffe who last stood 
for reelection in 2010 will retire by rotation as 
required under the articles and anthony martin 
who last stood for election in 2011 will also 
retire and stand for reelection in order to 
meet the minimum requirement
following performance evaluation the chairman 
has determined that each individual continues 
to demonstrate commitment to his role and to 
display effective performance he is therefore 
recommending election of all directors offering 
themselves for reelection at this year’ s agm
directors’ share options
details of directors’ sharebased options 
and awards and shares conditionally 
02 pence ordinary shares  
on 30 june 2013
02 pence ordinary shares  
on 30 june 2012
name of director
beneficial 
interest
non
beneficial 
interest
beneficial 
interest
non 
beneficial 
interest
mike redmond 75000 — 75000 —
jonathan milner 26494885 300155 27432784 496655
jeff iliffe 274185 — 21439 —
jim warwick 2942335 — 2939239 —
murray hennessy — — — —
peter keen 169125 — 169125 —
anthony martin — — — —
michael ross — — — —
total 29955530 300155 30637587 496655
awarded through the share incentive plan 
are provided in the directors’ remuneration 
report on pages 42 to 49
directors’ indemnities
the company has made qualifying third 
party indemnity provisions for the benefit 
of its directors which were made during the 
reporting period and these remain in force 
at the date of this report
supplier payment policy
the group’ s policy is to settle terms of 
payment with suppliers when agreeing the 
terms of each transaction ensure that suppliers 
are made aware of those terms and to abide 
by them provided that the goods or services 
have been supplied in accordance with the 
agreed terms and conditions trade creditors of 
the group at 30 june 2013 were equivalent to 
32 days purchases 2012 34 days based on 
the average daily amount invoiced by suppliers 
during the year
corporate social 
and ethical policies
the group aspires to carry out business to the 
highest of ethical standards treating employees 
suppliers and customers in a professional 
courteous and honest manner the group has 
an ethical policy which is reviewed by the board 
and which is applied to our products this 
includes reviewing and where appropriate 
visiting our suppliers to check the standards 
they follow in their products and services 
as the group continues to grow and mature 
we have maintained an approach to corporate 
responsibility which reflects our culture and 
sense of fun we take a holistic approach to 
the safety health and wellbeing of our staff 
support a wide range of charities within our 
local communities and actively work to minimise 
our impact on the wider environment 
going concern
in adopting the going concern basis 
for preparing the financial statements 
the directors have considered the business 
activities as set out on pages 1 to 24 
reviewed the group forecasts and budgets 
as well as the group’s principal risks and 
uncertainties as set out on pages 25 and 27
the directors are satisfied that the group has 
adequate resources to continue in operational 
existence for the foreseeable future
for this reason the group continues to 
adopt the going concern basis in preparing 
its financial statements
agm
the agm of abcam plc will be held at 
its registered office 330 science park 
cambridge uk on 8 november 2013 
at 11am the notice of meeting is given 
along with explanatory notes in the 
booklet which accompanies this report
auditor
each of the directors of the company at 
the date on which this report was approved 
confirms that 
  so far as the director is aware there 
is no relevant audit information of which 
the company’s auditor is unaware and
  the director has taken all the steps 
that he ought to have taken as a director 
to make himself aware of any relevant 
audit information and to establish that 
the company’s auditor is aware of 
that information
this confirmation is given and should be 
interpreted in accordance with the provisions 
of section 418 of the companies act 2006
following a recommendation from the 
audit committee it was decided that at the 
end of the audit for 201213 financial year the 
contract to provide external audit and taxation 
advisory and compliance services for the group 
would be put out to tender this will be the 
first such tender process since the company 
floated in 2005 and will enable the committee 
to compare the quality and effectiveness of 
the services provided by our current auditor 
deloitte llp  with those of other firms
the notice of meeting for the forthcoming 
agm will contain a resolution to appoint 
the firm whose tender is successful as 
auditors for the 201314 financial year
by order of the board
jeff iliffe
chief financial officer
9 september 2013
directors’ interests
the directors who held office at 30 june 2013 had the following interests in the ordinary 
shares of the company there have been no changes in the directors’ interests in shares 
of the company between 30 june 2013 and 9 september 2013
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 52
statement of directors’ responsibilities
the directors are responsible for 
preparing the annual report and the 
financial statements in accordance 
with applicable law and regulations
company law requires the directors to 
prepare financial statements for each financial 
year under that law the directors are required 
to prepare group financial statements in 
accordance with international financial 
reporting standards ifrs as adopted by 
the european union and article 4 of the ias 
regulation and have also chosen to prepare 
the parent company financial statements 
under ifrs as adopted by the european 
union under company law the directors 
must not approve the accounts unless they 
are satisfied that they give a true and fair 
view of the state of affairs of the company 
and of the profit or loss of the company 
for that period in preparing these financial 
statements the directors are required to
  properly select and apply 
accounting policies
  present information including 
accounting policies in a manner that 
provides relevant reliable comparable 
and understandable information
  provide additional disclosures when 
compliance with the specific requirements 
in ifrs is insufficient to enable users 
to understand the impact of particular 
transactions other events and conditions 
on the entity’s financial position and 
financial performance and
  make an assessment of the company’s 
ability to continue as a going concern
the directors are responsible for keeping 
proper accounting records that are sufficient 
to show and explain the company’s 
transactions and disclose with reasonable 
accuracy at any time the financial position 
of the company and enable them to ensure 
that the financial statements comply with 
the companies act 2006 they are also 
responsible for safeguarding the assets 
of the company and hence for taking 
reasonable steps for the prevention and 
detection of fraud and other irregularities
the directors are responsible for the 
maintenance and integrity of the corporate 
and financial information included on the 
company’s website legislation in the uk 
governing the preparation and dissemination 
of financial statements differs from legislation 
in other jurisdictions
directors’ responsibility statement
we confirm to the best of our knowledge
  the financial statements prepared in 
accordance with ifrs as adopted by the 
eu give a true and fair view of the assets 
liabilities financial position and profit or 
loss of the company and the undertakings 
included in the consolidation taken as a 
whole and
  the directors’ report includes a fair review 
of the development and performance 
of the business and the position of the 
company and the undertakings included 
in the consolidation taken as a whole 
together with a description of the principal 
risks and uncertainties that they face
by order of the board
mike redmond
chairman
jeff iliffe
chief financial officer
9 september 2013 financial statements
54 independent auditor’s report
55 consolidated income statement
56  reconciliation of adjusted 
financial measures
  consolidated statement 
of comprehensive income
57 balance sheets
58  consolidated statement of changes 
in equity
59  company statement of changes 
in equity
60 cash flow statements
61 notes to the financial statements
ibc corporate directory
 shareholder information
abcam plc is a public limited company 
which is listed on the alternative 
investment market aim of the london 
stock exchange this section contains 
the primary financial statements and 
the accounting policies applied for the 
financial year ended 30 june 2013
in this 
section
another year of 
successful results 
for abcam
53 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013
15— abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 54
independent auditor’s report
we have audited the financial statements of abcam plc for the year ended 30 june 2013 which comprise the consolidated income statement 
the consolidated statement of comprehensive income the consolidated and parent company balance sheets the consolidated and parent 
company statements of changes in equity the consolidated and parent company cash flow statements and the related notes 1 to 31 
the financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and international financial reporting standards 
ifrss as adopted by the european union
this report is made solely to the company’s members as a body in accordance with chapter 3 of part 16 of the companies act 2006 
our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are required to state to them 
in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose to the fullest extent permitted by law we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone 
other than the company and the company’s members as a body for our audit work for this report or for the opinions we have formed
respective responsibilities of directors and auditor
as explained more fully in the statement of directors’ responsibilities the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial 
statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on the financial 
statements in accordance with applicable law and international standards on auditing uk and ireland those standards require us to 
comply with the auditing practices board’s ethical standards for auditors
scope of the audit of the financial statements
an audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonable assurance 
that the financial statements are free from material misstatement whether caused by fraud or error this includes an assessment of whether 
the accounting policies are appropriate to the group’s and the parent company’s circumstances and have been consistently applied and 
adequately disclosed the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by the directors and the overall presentation of the 
financial statements in addition we read all the financial and nonfinancial information in the annual report to identify material inconsistencies 
with the audited financial statements if we become aware of any apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies we consider the 
implications for our report
opinion on financial statements
in our opinion
  the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent company’s affairs as at 30 june 2013 
and of the group’s profit for the year then ended
  the financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with ifrss as adopted by the european union and
  the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the companies act 2006
opinion on other matter prescribed by the companies act 2006
in our opinion the information given in the directors’ report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared 
is consistent with the financial statements
matters on which we are required to report by exception
we have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the companies act 2006 requires us to report to you if in our opinion
  adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent company or returns adequate for our audit have not been received 
from branches not visited by us or
  the parent company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns or
  certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made or
  we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit
david halstead senior statutory auditor
for and on behalf of deloitte llp
chartered accountants and statutory auditor
cambridge uk
9 september 2013 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 55
consolidated income statement
for the year ended 30 june 2013
 notes 
year
ended
30 june
2013
£000 
year
ended
30 june
2012
£000 
continuing operations
revenue 5 122206 97839
cost of sales 35500 30282
gross profit 86706 67557
administration and management expenses excluding sharebased payments charge 34701 27738
sharebased payments charge 28 1211 1370
total administration and management expenses 35912 29108
rd expenses excluding sharebased payments charge 7766 4028
sharebased payments charge 28 180 186
total rd expenses 7946 4214
operating profit 42848 34235
investment revenue 9 129 500
finance costs 9 83 73
profit before tax 42894 34662
taxation 10 10236 9256
profit for the year attributable to shareholders 6 32658 25406
earnings per share from continuing operations
basic 11 1652p 1372p
diluted 11 1634p 1348p
adjusted diluted 11 1757p 1559p abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 56
reconciliation of adjusted financial measures
for the year ended 30 june 2013
year ended
30 june
2013
£000
year ended
30 june
2012
£000
operating profit 42848 34235
integration costs 400 —
acquisition costs — 3397
amortisation of acquisitionrelated intangible assets 3282 964
operating profit adjusted 46530 38596
consolidated statement of comprehensive income 
for the year ended 30 june 2013
year ended
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000 
profit for the year 32658 25406
reserve movements on cash flow hedges 2244 1528
exchange differences on translation of foreign operations 1510 507
tax relating to components of other comprehensive income 539 611
other comprehensive income for the year 195 1424
total comprehensive income for the year 32463 26830 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 57
balance sheets
at 30 june 2013
notes
consolidated parent company
30 june
2013
£000
30 june
2012
£000
30 june
2013
£000
30 june
2012
£000
noncurrent assets
goodwill 12 81954 82356 — —
intangible assets 13 33107 34297 4361 1284
property plant and equipment 14 7501 5763 1565 1571
investments 15 — — 95840 123112
deferred tax asset 16 5011 4401 2395 2413
loan receivable 19 — — 44175 —
derivative financial instruments 21 29 204 29 204
127602 127021 148365 128584
current assets
inventories 17 15330 15414 15630 13539
trade and other receivables 18 17440 14286 15062 11204
cash and cash equivalents 35388 14037 25295 8005
term deposits 2923 3443 1000 1000
availableforsale asset 20 703 679 — —
derivative financial instruments 21 531 883 531 883
72315 48742 57518 34631
total assets 199917 175763 205883 163215
current liabilities
trade and other payables 22 14317 10726 13314 13074
current tax liabilities 2325 3791 4716 3850
derivative financial instruments 21 1339 86 1339 86
17981 14603 19369 17010
net current assets 54334 34139 38149 17621
noncurrent liabilities
deferred tax liability 16 11284 12937 — —
derivative financial instruments 21 375 10 375 10
11659 12947 375 10
total liabilities 29640 27550 19744 17020
net assets 170277 148213 186139 146195
equity
share capital 24 399 397 399 397
share premium account 24 72908 71813 72908 71813
own shares 24 1872 1586 1872 1586
translation reserve 24 2203 746 — —
sharebased payments reserve 24 5893 4449 5370 4386
hedging reserve 24 1048 671 1048 671
deferred tax reserve 24 1252 2017 1022 1787
retained earnings 90542 69706 109360 68727
total equity attributable to shareholders 170277 148213 186139 146195
the financial statements of abcam plc registered number 3509322 were approved by the board of directors and authorised for issue on 
9 september 2013
they were signed on its behalf by
jeff iliffe
director abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 58
consolidated statement of changes in equity
for the year ended 30 june 2013
share
capital
£000
share
premium
£000
own
shares
£000
translation
reserve
1
£000
sharebased
payments
reserve
2
£000
hedging
reserve
3
£000
deferred
tax
reserve
4
£000
retained
earnings
£000
total
equity
£000
balance as at 1 july 2012 397 71813 1586 746 4449 671 2017 69706 148213
profit for the year — — — — — — — 32658 32658 
exchange differences on 
translation of foreign operations — — — 1457 53 — — — 1510 
movements on cash 
flow hedges — — — — — 2244 — — 2244 
tax relating to components of 
other comprehensive income — — — — — 525 765 779 539 
total comprehensive income 
for the year — — — 1457 53 1719 765 33437 32463 
issue of share capital 2 1095 381 — — — — — 716 
own shares disposed 
of on release of shares — — 95 — — — — 95 —
credit to equity for  
sharebased payments — — — — 1391 — — — 1391
payment of dividends — — — — — — — 12506 12506 
balance as at 30 june 2013 399 72908 1872 2203 5893 1048 1252 90542 170277
share
capital
£000
share
premium
£000
own
shares
£000
translation
reserve
1
£000
sharebased
payments
reserve
2
£000
hedging
reserve
3
£000
deferred 
tax 
reserve
4
£000
retained
earnings
£000
total
equity
£000
balance as at 1 july 2011 364 15400 1165 251 2881 477 2636 54030 73920
profit for the year — — — — — — — 25406 25406
exchange differences on 
translation of foreign operations — — — 495 12 — — — 507
movements on cash 
flow hedges — — — — — 1528 — — 1528
tax relating to components of 
other comprehensive income — — — — — 380 619 388 611
total comprehensive income 
for the year — — — 495 12 1148 619 25794 26830
issue of share capital 33 56413 478 — — — — — 55968
own shares disposed 
of on release of shares — — 57 — — — — 57 —
credit to equity for  
sharebased payments — — — — 1556 — — — 1556
payment of dividends — — — — — — — 10061 10061
balance as at 30 june 2012 397 71813 1586 746 4449 671 2017 69706 148213
1 exchange differences on translation of overseas operations 
2 ifrs 2 charge for fair value of sharebased options and awards 
3 gains and losses recognised on cash flow hedges 
4 portion of deferred tax asset arising on outstanding share options and share options exercised and not taken to profit and loss in accordance with ias 12 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 59
company statement of changes in equity
for the year ended 30 june 2013
share
capital
£000
share
premium
£000
own
shares
£000
sharebased
payments
reserve
1
£000
hedging
reserve
2
£000
deferred
tax
reserve
3
£000
retained
earnings
£000
total
equity
£000
balance as at 1 july 2012 397 71813 1586 4386 671 1787 68727 146195
profit for the year — — — — — — 52524 52524
movements on cash flow hedges — — — — 2244 — — 2244
tax relating to components of other 
comprehensive income — — — — 525 765 710 470
total comprehensive income  
for the year — — — — 1719 765 53234 50750
issue of share capital 2 1095 381 — — — — 716
own shares disposed of on exercise of 
share options — — 95 — — — 95 —
credit to equity for  
sharebased payments — — — 984 — — — 984
payment of dividends — — — — — — 12506 12506
balance as at 30 june 2013 399 72908 1872 5370 1048 1022 109360 186139
  profit for the year includes £13973000 of nondistributable earnings relating to the gain on disposal resulting from an intragroup transfer of a subsidiary 
undertaking see note 15 for further details
share
capital
£000
share
premium
£000
own
shares
£000
sharebased
payments
reserve
1
£000
hedging
reserve
2
£000
deferred
tax
reserve
3
£000
retained
earnings
£000
total
equity
£000
balance as at 1 july 2011 364 15400 1165 2877 477 2089 53987 73075
profit for the year — — — — — — 24501 24501
sharebased payments charge recognised  
on behalf of subsidiaries — — — 129 — — — 129
movements on cash flow hedges — — — — 1528 — — 1528
tax relating to components of  
other comprehensive income — — — — 380 302 357 325
total comprehensive income  
for the year — — — 129 1148 302 24858 25833
issue of share capital 33 56413 478 — — — — 55968
own shares disposed of on  
exercise of share options — — 57 — — — 57 —
credit to equity for  
sharebased payments — — — 1380 — — — 1380
payment of dividends — — — — — — 10061 10061
balance as at 30 june 2012 397 71813 1586 4386 671 1787 68727 146195
1 ifrs 2 charge for fair value of sharebased options and awards 
2 gains and losses recognised on cash flow hedges 
3  portion of deferred tax asset arising on outstanding share options and share options exercised and not taken to profit and loss in accordance with ias 12 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 60
cash flow statements
for the year ended 30 june 2013
notes 
consolidated parent company
30 june 
2013
£000
30 june
2012
£000
30 june
2013
£000
30 june
2012
£000 
operating profit for the year 42848 34235 40221 29275
adjustments for
depreciation of property plant and equipment 14 1990 1474 871 1064
amortisation of intangible assets 13 3838 1244 774 312
decrease in provisions — 5 — 5
change in fair value of derivatives outstanding at year end 99 210 99 210
sharebased payments charge 28 1391 1556 984 1381
operating cash flows before movements in working capital 49968 38304 42751 31827
decreaseincrease in inventories 1288 2048 2091 3066
increase in receivables 4493 736 4718 413
increasedecrease in payables 4625 2966 280 5389
cash generated by operations 51388 32554 35662 33737
income taxes paid 11872 8017 8574 6577
finance costs paid 82 73 200 117
net cash inflow from operating activities 39434 24464 26888 27043
investing activities
investment income 115 584 68 570
proceeds on disposal of property plant and equipment 8 — — —
purchase of property plant and equipment 3675 1890 963 554
purchase of intangible assets 3548 941 3513 921
acquisition of subsidiaries net of cash and term deposits acquired 26 42 50961 42 63507
dividends received — — 6558 2323
net cash used in investing activities 7058 53208 2192 62089 
financing activities
dividends paid 25 12506 10061 12506 10061
proceeds on issue of shares 716 533 716 533
decrease in term deposits 520 20194 — 22637
net cash used inarising from financing activities 11270 10666 11790 13109
net increasedecrease in cash and cash equivalents 21106 18078 17290 21937
cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 14037 31932 8005 29942
effect of foreign exchange rates 245 183 — —
cash and cash equivalents at end of year 35388 14037 25295 8005 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 61
notes to the financial statements
for the year ended 30 june 2013
1 general information
abcam plc the company is incorporated in the uk under the companies act 2006 the address of the registered office 
is 330 cambridge science park milton road cambridge cb4 0fl uk
the group is a producer and distributor of highquality researchgrade antibodies and associated protein research tools the group 
operates through its ultimate parent company abcam plc and through its wholly owned subsidiaries abcam inc abcam kk abcam 
hong kong limited ascent scientific limited epitomics inc epitomics hangzhou biotechnology co limited and mitosciences inc 
allowing it to serve a global customer base of over 100 countries
2 adoption of new and revised standards
in the current year the following new and revised standards and interpretations have been adopted and have affected the amounts 
reported in these financial statements
standards affecting the financial statements
amendments to ias 1 presentation of financial statements
the amendment increases the required level of disclosure within the statement of comprehensive income
standards not affecting the reported results nor the financial position
at the date of authorisation of these financial statements the following standards and interpretations which have not been applied 
in these financial statements were in issue but not yet effective and in some cases had not yet been adopted by the eu
ifrs 1 amended severe hyperinflation and removal of fixed dates for firsttime adopters
ifrs 7 amended disclosures – offsetting financial assets and financial liabilities
ifrs 9 financial instruments
ifrs 10 consolidated financial statements
ifrs 11 joint arrangements
ifrs 12 disclosure of interests in other entities
ifrs 13 fair value measurement
ias 12 amended deferred tax recovery of underlying assets
ias 19 revised employee benefits
ias 27 revised separate financial statements
ias 28 revised investments in associates and joint ventures
ias 32 amended offsetting financial assets and financial liabilities
the directors do not expect that the adoption of these standards and interpretations in future periods will have a material impact on the 
financial statements of the group
3 significant accounting policies
basis of accounting
the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with ifrss adopted by the european union and therefore the group financial 
statements comply with article 4 of the eu ias regulation
after making enquiries the directors have a reasonable expectation that the group has adequate resources to continue in operational 
existence for the foreseeable future for this reason they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements
the financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis except for the revaluation of certain financial instruments 
the group financial statements are presented in sterling and all values are rounded to the nearest thousand pounds £000 except 
when otherwise indicated the principal accounting policies adopted are set out in the next few pages
basis of consolidation
the consolidated financial statements incorporate the financial statements of the company and entities controlled by the company made 
up to 30 june each year control is achieved where the company has the power to govern the financial and operating policies of an investee 
entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities
subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which control is transferred to the group they are deconsolidated from the date that 
control ceases where necessary adjustments are made to the financial statements of subsidiaries to bring the accounting policies in line 
with those used by the group all intragroup transactions balances income and expenses are eliminated on consolidation  abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 62
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
3 significant accounting policies continued
business combinations
business combinations are accounted for using the acquisition method the consideration transferred for the acquisition of a subsidiary 
is the fair values at the date of exchange of the assets transferred the liabilities incurred and the equity interests issued by the group 
acquisitionrelated costs are expensed as incurred
identifiable assets acquired and liabilities and contingent liabilities assumed in a business combination that meet the recognition criteria 
under ifrs 3 2008 are measured at their fair values at the date of acquisition except that
  deferred tax assets or liabilities and liabilities or assets related to employee benefit arrangements are recognised and measured 
in accordance with ias 12 income taxes and ias 19 employee benefits respectively
  liabilities or equity instruments relating to the replacement by the group of an acquiree’s sharebased payment awards are measured 
in accordance with ifrs 2 sharebased payment and
  assets or disposal groups that are classified as held for sale in accordance with ifrs 5 noncurrent assets held for sale and 
discontinued operations are measured as per that standard
investments in subsidiaries are accounted for at cost less impairment where applicable cost is adjusted to reflect changes in consideration 
arising from contingent consideration amendments cost also includes direct attributable costs of investment
goodwill
goodwill represents the excess of the cost of an acquisition over the fair value of the group’s share of the net identifiable assets of the 
acquired subsidiary at the date of acquisition goodwill is reviewed and tested annually for impairment and carried at cost less accumulated 
impairment losses impairment losses on goodwill are not reversed in subsequent periods gains and losses on the disposal of an entity 
include the carrying amount of goodwill relating to the entity sold
goodwill is allocated to cashgenerating units for the purpose of impairment testing the allocation is made to those cashgenerating units 
or groups of cashgenerating units that are expected to benefit from the business combination in which the goodwill arose cashgenerating 
units to which goodwill has been allocated are tested for impairment annually or more frequently when there is an indication that the unit 
may be impaired if the recoverable amount of the cashgenerating unit is less than the carrying amount of the unit the impairment loss 
is allocated first to reduce the carrying amount of any goodwill allocated to the unit and then to the other assets of the unit prorata on 
the basis of the carrying amount of each asset in the unit
in accordance with ias 21 goodwill arising on the acquisition of a foreign operation and any fair value adjustments to the carrying amounts 
of assets and liabilities arising on the acquisition of that foreign operation are treated as assets and liabilities of that foreign operation and as 
such are translated at the relevant foreign exchange rate at the balance sheet date
revenue recognition
revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable and represents amounts receivable for goods and services 
provided in the normal course of business net of discounts vat and other salesrelated taxes
sales of goods are recognised when goods are despatched and title has passed
custom service revenue is recognised proportionately when the outcome of each discreet stage of the contract can be estimated reliably 
and is then based on the stage of completion of the contract activity at the balance sheet date where the outcome cannot be estimated 
reliably revenue is recognised to the extent of costs incurred where it is probable these will be recovered in instances where it is probable 
that the costs will be in excess of the contract revenue the expected loss is recognised as an expense immediately
licence fee income is recognised on delivery of the licensed technology where the group’s continued performance or future research 
and development services are not required payments received prior to this are recorded as deferred revenue
royalty revenue is recognised based on the contractual terms and the substance of the agreements with the counterparty
interest income is accrued on a time basis by reference to the principal outstanding and the effective interest rate applicable which is the 
rate that exactly discounts estimated future cash receipts through the expected life of the financial asset to that asset’s net carrying amount
dividend income from investments is recognised when the shareholders’ rights to receive payment have been established
revenue derived from the company’s conferences is recognised when the conference is held however it is not material
leasing
leases are classified as finance leases whenever the terms of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership 
to the lessee all other leases are classified as operating leases
rentals payable under operating leases are charged to income on a straightline basis over the term of the relevant lease benefits received 
and receivable as an incentive to enter into an operating lease are also spread on a straightline basis over the lease term overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 63
3 significant accounting policies continued
foreign currencies
the individual financial statements of each group company are presented in the currency of the primary economic environment in which it operates 
its functional currency for the purposes of the consolidated financial statements the results and financial position of each group company are 
expressed in sterling which is the functional currency of the company and the presentation currency for the consolidated financial statements
in preparing the financial statements of the individual companies transactions in currencies other than the entity’ s functional currency foreign 
currencies are recorded at the rates of exchange prevailing at the dates of the transactions at each balance sheet date monetary assets 
and liabilities that are denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated to the rates prevailing at the balance sheet date nonmonetary 
items carried at fair value that are denominated in foreign currencies are translated at the rates prevailing at the date when the fair value 
was determined nonmonetary items that are measured in terms of historical cost in a foreign currency are not retranslated
exchange differences are recognised in profit or loss in the period in which they arise except for
  exchange differences on transactions entered into to hedge certain foreign currency risks see below under financial instrumentshedge 
accounting and
  exchange differences on monetary items receivable from or payable to a foreign operation for which settlement is neither planned nor 
likely to occur which form part of the net investment in a foreign operation and which are recognised in the foreign currency translation 
reserve and recognised in profit or loss on disposal of the net investment
for the purpose of presenting consolidated financial statements the results of the operations of the company’s overseas subsidiaries 
are translated at the monthly exchange rates during the period and their balance sheets at the rates prevailing at the balance sheet date 
exchange differences arising on the translation of the opening net assets and results of operations are classified as equity and recognised 
in the group’s foreign currency translation reserve
retirement benefit costs
payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due payments made to statemanaged 
retirement benefit schemes are dealt with as payments to defined contribution schemes where the nature of the group’s obligations under 
the schemes is equivalent to those arising in a defined contribution retirement benefit scheme
taxation
the tax expense represents the sum of the tax currently payable and deferred tax
the tax currently payable is based on taxable profit for the year taxable profit differs from net profit as reported in the income statement 
because it excludes some items of income or expense that are taxable or deductible in other years and it further excludes items that are 
never taxable or deductible the group’s liability for current tax is calculated using tax rates that have been enacted or substantively 
enacted by the balance sheet date
deferred tax is the tax expected to be payable or recoverable on differences between the carrying amount of assets and liabilities in the 
financial statements and the corresponding tax bases used in the computation of taxable profit and is accounted for using the balance 
sheet liability method deferred tax liabilities are generally recognised for all taxable temporary differences and deferred tax assets are 
recognised to the extent that it is probable that taxable profits will be available against which deductible temporary differences can be 
utilised such assets and liabilities are not recognised if the temporary difference arises from the initial recognition of goodwill or from 
the initial recognition of other assets and liabilities in a transaction that affects neither the taxable profit nor the accounting profit
deferred tax liabilities are recognised for taxable temporary differences arising on investments in subsidiaries and associates and interests 
in joint ventures except where the group is able to control the reversal of the temporary difference and it is probable that the temporary 
difference will not reverse in the foreseeable future
the carrying amount of deferred tax assets is reviewed at each balance sheet date and reduced to the extent that it is no longer probable 
that sufficient taxable profits will be available to allow all or part of the asset to be recovered
deferred tax is calculated at the tax rates that are expected to apply in the period when the liability is settled or the asset is realised 
deferred tax is charged or credited in the income statement except where it relates to items charged or credited directly to equity 
in which case the deferred tax is also dealt with in equity
deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when there is a legally enforceable right to set off current tax assets against current tax liabilities and when 
they relate to income taxes levied by the same taxation authority and the group intends to settle its current tax assets and liabilities on a net basis abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 64
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
3 significant accounting policies continued
property plant and equipment
property plant and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and any recognised impairment loss
depreciation is charged so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets over their estimated useful lives using the straightline method 
on the following bases
office equipment fixtures and fittings 20 per annum
laboratory equipment 20 per annum
computer equipment 33 per annum
hybridomas 125 per annum
motor vehicles 20 per annum
the gain or loss arising on the disposal or retirement of an asset is determined as the difference between the sales proceeds and the 
carrying amount of the asset and is recognised in income
intangible assets
expenditure on research activities is recognised as an expense in the period in which it is incurred
expenditure on development activities including internally generated intangible assets is recognised as an asset if and only if it meets 
the recognition criteria set out in ias 38 intangible assets
payments made to acquire software distribution rights capitalised development work and contract based intangibles from third parties 
are capitalised at cost and amortised on a straight line basis over their estimated minimum useful lives the minimum useful life is determined 
to be between three years and five years for software the term of the deal in the case of distribution rights and the length of the contract 
for contract based intangibles
impairment of tangible and intangible assets excluding goodwill
at each balance sheet date the group reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible and intangible assets to determine whether there 
is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss if such indication exists the recoverable amount of the asset is 
estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss if any an intangible asset with an indefinite useful life is tested for 
impairment annually and whenever there is an indication that the asset may be impaired
recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less costs to sell and value in use in assessing value in use the estimated future cash 
flows are discounted to their present value using a pretax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value 
of money and the risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash flows have not been adjusted
if the recoverable amount of an asset is estimated to be less than its carrying amount the carrying amount of the asset is reduced 
to its recoverable amount an impairment loss is recognised as an expense immediately
investments
investments in subsidiaries are stated at cost less where appropriate provisions for impairment
inventories
inventories are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value cost comprises direct materials and where applicable direct labour costs 
and an attributable portion of production overheads that have been incurred in bringing the inventories to their present location and condition 
cost is calculated using the standard cost method net realisable value represents the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of 
completion and costs to be incurred in marketing selling and distribution provision is made for obsolete slow moving or defective items 
where appropriate
financial instruments
financial assets and financial liabilities are recognised on the group’s balance sheet when the group becomes a party to the contractual 
provisions of the instrument
availableforsale financial assets
the group has an investment in unlisted shares which is not traded in an active market but is classified as an availableforsale financial 
asset and stated at cost less any provision for impairment
trade and other receivables
trade receivables are measured at initial recognition at fair value appropriate allowances for estimated irrecoverable amounts are recognised 
in the income statement when there is objective evidence that the asset is impaired when a trade receivable is considered uncollectable 
it is written off against the allowance account subsequent recoveries of amounts previously written off are credited against the allowance 
account changes in the carrying amount of the allowance account are recognised in the income statement
cash and cash equivalents
cash and cash equivalents comprise cash on hand and demand deposits and other shortterm highly liquid investments that are readily 
convertible to a known amount of cash and are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value
term deposits
term deposits represent bank deposits and a charitable bond all with an original maturity of over three months overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 65
3 significant accounting policies continued
financial liabilities and equity
financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into 
an equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the group after deducting all of its liabilities 
the accounting policies adopted for specific financial liabilities and equity instruments are set out below
trade payables
trade payables are measured at amortised cost
equity instruments
equity instruments issued by the company are recorded at the proceeds received net of direct issue costs
derivative financial instruments
forward contracts are used by the group to manage its exposure to the risk associated with the variability in cash flows in relation to both 
recognised assets or liabilities and forecast transactions
derivatives are initially recognised at fair value at the date a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently remeasured to their 
fair value at each balance sheet date a derivative with a positive fair value is recognised as a financial asset whereas a derivative with a 
negative fair value is recognised as a financial liability the resulting gain or loss is recognised in the income statement immediately unless 
the derivative is designated and effective as a hedging instrument in which event the timing of the recognition in the income statement 
depends on the nature of the hedge relationship
a derivative is presented as a noncurrent asset or noncurrent liability if the remaining maturity of the instrument is more than twelve months 
and it is not expected to be realised or settled within twelve months other derivatives are presented as current assets or current liabilities
hedge accounting
the group designates certain derivatives as either hedges of highly probable forecast transactions or hedges of foreign currency risk 
of firm commitments cash flow hedges
at the inception of the hedge relationship the group documents the relationship between the hedging instrument and the hedged item 
along with its risk management objectives and its strategy for undertaking various hedge transactions furthermore at the inception of the 
hedge and on an ongoing basis the group documents whether the hedging instrument that is used in a hedging relationship is effective 
in offsetting changes in fair values or cash flows of the hedged item
cash flow hedges
the effective portion of changes in the fair value of derivatives that are designated and qualify as cash flow hedges are deferred in equity 
the gain or loss relating to the ineffective portion is recognised immediately in profit or loss and is included in the ‘administration and 
management expenses’ line of the income statement
amounts deferred in equity are recycled in the income statement in the periods when the hedged item is recognised in profit or loss 
in the same line of the income statement as the recognised hedged item
hedge accounting is discontinued when the group revokes the hedging relationship the hedging instrument expires or is sold terminated 
or exercised or no longer qualifies for hedge accounting any cumulative gain or loss deferred in equity at that time remains in equity and is 
recognised when the forecast transaction is ultimately recognised in profit or loss when a forecast transaction is no longer expected to 
occur the cumulative gain or loss that was deferred in equity is recognised immediately in profit or loss
sharebased payments
the group has applied the requirements of ifrs 2 sharebased payment in accordance with ifrs 1 ifrs 2 has been applied to all 
grants of equity instruments after 7 november 2002 that were unvested at 1 july 2006
incentives in the form of shares are provided to employees under share option sip and ltip  equitysettled sharebased payments are 
measured at fair value excluding the effect of non marketbased vesting conditions at the date of grant the fair value determined at the 
grant date of the equitysettled sharebased payments is expensed on a straightline basis over the vesting period based on the group’s 
estimate of the number of shares that will eventually vest abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 66
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
3 significant accounting policies continued
sharebased payments continued
fair value of options issued under the group’s share option schemes is measured by the use of the monte carlo simulation
fair value of the awards under the group’s ltip is measured by the use of the monte carlo simulation for the tsr portion and the 
black scholes model for the eps portion
fair value of an equitysettled payment under the sip is measured as the face value of the award on the date of grant
the expected life used in the model has been adjusted based on management’s best estimate for the effects of nontransferability 
exercise restrictions and behavioural considerations charges made to the income statement in respect of sharebased payments 
are credited to the sharebased payments reserve
the group operates an employee share benefit trust as part of its incentive plans for ukbased employees all assets and liabilities 
of the trust are recorded in the balance sheet as assets and liabilities of the company until such time as the assets are awarded to 
the beneficiaries all income and expenditure of the trust is similarly brought into the results of the company
own shares
own equity instruments which are acquired are recognised at cost and deducted from equity no gain or loss is recognised in the income 
statement on the purchase sale issue or cancellation of the group’s own equity instruments any difference between the carrying amount 
and the consideration is recognised in reserves
4 critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
in the application of the group’s accounting policies which are described in note 3 the directors are required to make judgements estimates 
and assumptions about the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities as at the date of reporting the financial statements and the reported 
amounts of revenues and expenditure during the year in preparation of the consolidated financial statements estimates and assumptions 
have been made by the directors concerning the fair value of share options the estimated useful lives of fixed assets accruals and provisions 
required the carrying value of investments the recoverability of deferred tax assets the carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets 
and other similar evaluations actual amounts may differ from those estimates
the estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the 
period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision 
affects both current and future periods
key sources of estimation uncertainty
the key assumptions concerning the future and other sources of estimation uncertainty at the balance sheet date that have a significant 
risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are discussed below
impairment of intangibles
as part of the business combinations the group acquired the following intangible assets licence fees customer relationships patents 
trade names technology and knowhow further to this the group capitalises it development costs relating to the rebuilding of the group’s 
it core systems since these costs meet the recognition criteria of ias 38 the group reviews the carrying amount of all intangible assets 
held at each balance sheet date and no impairment was considered necessary for these assets 
impairment of goodwill
the group determines whether goodwill is impaired on at least an annual basis or more frequently when there are indications of possible 
impairment the impairment review requires a value in use calculation of the cashgenerating units to which the goodwill is allocated 
in estimating the value in use management is required to make an estimate of the expected future cash flows attributable to the  
cashgenerating unit and to choose an appropriate discount rate to calculate the present value of those cash flows the carrying 
amount of goodwill at 30 june 2013 was £81954000 2012 £82356000 further details are given in note 12
fair value of derivatives and other financial instruments
as described in note 27 the directors use their judgement in selecting an appropriate valuation technique for financial instruments not 
quoted in an active market valuation techniques commonly used by market practitioners are applied for derivative financial instruments 
assumptions are made based on quoted market rates adjusted for specific features of the instrument other financial instruments are 
valued using a discounted cash flow analysis based on assumptions supported where possible by observable market prices or rates
valuation of own manufactured inventory
the standard costs used for the valuation of own manufactured inventory require a number of assumptions concerning the allocation of 
overheads these assumptions are based primarily on management’s estimates of time spent in each relevant area of activity and normal 
levels of activity
provision for slow moving or defective inventory
the provision for slow moving or defective inventory is based on management’s estimation of the commercial life and shelf life of inventory 
lines in assessing this management takes into consideration the sales history of products and the length of time that they have been 
available for resale overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 67
5 operating segments
products and services from which reportable segments derive their revenues 
the directors consider that there are no identifiable business segments that are engaged in providing individual products or services or a 
group of related products and services that are subject to risks and returns that are different to the core business the information reported 
to the group’s chief executive officer who is considered the chief operating decision maker for the purposes of resource allocation and 
assessment of performance is based wholly on the overall activities of the group the group has therefore determined that it has only 
one reportable segment under ifrs 8 which is ‘sales of antibodies and related products’ the group’s revenue and results and assets 
for this one reportable segment can be determined by reference to the group’s income statement and balance sheet
the group has no individual product or customer which comprises more than 10 of its revenues
geographical information
the group’s revenue from external customers and information about its noncurrent segment assets excluding deferred tax 
and derivative financial instruments by geographical location is detailed below
revenue noncurrent assets
year ended
30 june
2013
£000
year ended
30 june
2012
£000
as at
30 june
2013
£000
as at
30 june
2012
£000
us 53399 40750 32937 34901
japan 12594 11304 109 159
germany 8393 7368 — —
uk 8314 7098 88483 86587
china 6544 4623 1010 736
other countries 32962 26696 23 33
122206 97839 122562 122416
revenues are attributed to countries on the basis of the customer’s location no country included within ‘other countries’ contributes 
more than 5 of the group’s total revenue
6 profit for the year
profit for the year has been arrived at after chargingcrediting
notes 
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
foreign exchange differences arising on financial instruments at fair value through profit or loss 99 210
other net foreign exchange losses 1046 335
rd expenditure including amortisation as detailed below 7946 4214
operating lease rentals – land and buildings 23 2180 1362
depreciation of property plant and equipment 14 1990 1474
amortisation of intangible assets included within administration and management expenses 13 556 280
amortisation of acquisitionrelated intangible assets included within administration and 
management expenses 13 1525 436
amortisation of acquisitionrelated intangible assets included within rd expenditure 13 1757 528
cost of inventories recognised as an expense 33411 29381
write down of inventories recognised as an expense 2088 882
staff costs 8 24864 18105
impairment loss recognised on trade receivables 18 20 4
auditor’s remuneration 7 293 586 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 68
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
7 auditor’s remuneration
a detailed analysis of the auditor’s remuneration on a worldwide basis is provided below
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
fees payable to the company’s auditor for the audit of the company’s annual accounts 96 93
fees payable in relation to acquisitionrelated audit services 10 17
fees payable to the company’s auditor for other services to the group
– the audit of the company’s subsidiaries pursuant to legislation 4 3
total audit fees 110 113
– auditrelated assurance services 20 20
– taxation compliance services 65 23
– corporate finance services — 374
– other taxation advisory services 98 56
total nonaudit fees 183 473
total auditor’s remuneration 293 586
 this relates to the interim review
details on the company’s policy on the use of the auditor for nonaudit services are set out in the audit committee report during the 
prior year the auditor was used for due diligence work as this was considered most beneficial to the group due to the auditor’s established 
knowledge and experience of the group’s activities the auditor’s independence and objectivity was safeguarded through the use of separate 
engagement teams no services were provided pursuant to contingent fee arrangements
the company purchased services to the value of £35000 2012 £26000 provided by cambridge network limited and its subsidiaries 
a notforprofit organisation this is disclosed due to the audit partner also being a director of cambridge network limited consistent with 
the notforprofit status neither the audit partner nor deloitte receives any remuneration in relation to this arrangement
8 employees and remuneration
the average monthly number of employees including executive directors was
group company
year ended
30 june
2013
number 
year ended
30 june
2012
number 
year ended
30 june
2013
number 
year ended
30 june
2012
number 
management administrative marketing and distribution 400 309 187 171
laboratory 290 96 42 41
690 405 229 212
their aggregate remuneration comprised
group company
year ended
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000 
year ended
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000 
wages and salaries 20007 14157 9504 8402
social security costs 2431 1443 803 625
pension costs 1035 949 819 769
charge in respect of share options and awards granted 1391 1556 983 1381
total staff costs 24864 18105 12109 11177
staff costs capitalised 434 65 394 65
net staff costs 24430 18040 11715 11112
  £434000 2012 £65000 relates to group staff costs directly attributable to the rebuild of the it core systems being capitalised as part of an internally generated 
intangible asset under ias 38 see note 13 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 69
9 net finance income
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
interest on cash and term deposits 129 500
facility fees 83 37
interest on borrowings — 36
net finance income 46 427
10 taxation
note
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
current tax 10084 9741
deferred tax 16 152 485
10236 9256
uk corporation tax is calculated at 2375 2012 255 of the estimated assessable profit for the year taxation for other jurisdictions 
is calculated at the rates prevailing in the respective jurisdictions
the finance act 2012 which provided for a reduction in the main rate of uk corporation tax to 23 effective from 1 april 2013 was 
substantively enacted in july 2012 this rate reduction has been reflected in the calculation of deferred tax at the balance sheet date
the uk government also announced a further reduction in the main rate of corporation tax to 21 effective 1 april 2014 and has proposed 
a further reduction of 1 by 1 april 2015 these further tax rate reductions had not been substantively enacted at the balance sheet date 
and therefore have not been reflected in these financial statements
the effect of these tax rate reductions on the deferred tax balance will be accounted for in the period in which the tax rate reductions 
are substantively enacted
the impact of the rate reduction to 21 which will be reflected in the next reporting period is estimated to reduce the uk deferred tax 
asset and liability provided at 30 june 2013 by £232000 and £29000 respectively
the charge for the year can be reconciled to the profit per the income statement as follows
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2013
 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
 
profit before tax 42894 34662 
tax at the uk corporation tax rate of 2375 2012 255 10188 238 8839 255
effect of different tax rates of subsidiaries operating in different jurisdictions 502 12 423 12
tax effect of expenses that are not deductible in determining taxable profit 254 06 904 26
additional relief in relation to overseas entities 442 10 — —
rd tax credit uplift 369 09 713 21
prior year adjustments 93 02 219 06
effect of difference between closing deferred tax rate and current tax rate 10 — 22 01
tax expense and effective rate for the year 10236 239 9256 267 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 70
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
11 earnings per share
the calculation of the basic and diluted eps is based on the following data
year ended
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000 
earnings
earnings for the purposes of basic and diluted eps being net profit attributable  
to equity holders of the parent company 32658 25406
number number
number of shares
weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purposes of basic eps 197743410 185131455
effect of dilutive potential ordinary shares
– share options 2176531 3383068
weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purposes of diluted eps 199919941 188514523
basic eps is calculated by dividing the earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders by the weighted average number of shares outstanding 
during the year diluted eps is calculated on the same basis as basic eps but with a further adjustment for the weighted average shares in 
issue to reflect the effect of all dilutive potential ordinary shares the number of dilutive potential ordinary shares is derived from the number 
of sharebased options and awards granted to employees where the exercise price is less than the average market price of the company’ s 
ordinary shares during the year or where it is considered nonmarket performance conditions will not be met resulting in the options not vesting
adjusted earnings per share
the calculation of adjusted eps excluding acquisition costs and amortisation of associated intangible assets is based on earnings of
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended 
30 june
2012
£000 
earnings for the purposes of basic and diluted eps being net profit attributable to equity holders of the 
parent company 32658 25406
integration costs 400 —
acquisition costs — 3397
amortisation of associated intangible assets 3282 964
tax effect of adjusting items 1216 374
profit after tax excluding acquisition costs and amortisation of associated intangible assets 35124 29393
the denominators used are the same as those detailed above for both basic and diluted earnings per share 
adjusted eps after adding back acquisition costs and amortisation of associated intangible assets
year ended
30 june
2013 
year ended
30 june
2012 
adjusted basic eps 1776p 1588p
adjusted diluted eps 1757p 1559p
the adjusted eps information is considered to provide a fairer representation of the group’s trading performance  overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 71
12 goodwill
£000
cost
at 1 july 2011 2062
recognised on acquisition of subsidiaries 80067
fair value adjustments during measurement period 227
at 1 july 2012 82356
fair value adjustments during measurement period 1367
exchange differences 965
at 30 june 2013 81954
accumulated impairment losses
at 1 july 2011 1 july 2012 and 30 june 2013 —
carrying amount
at 30 june 2012 82356
at 30 june 2013 81954
goodwill acquired in a business combination is allocated at acquisition to the cashgenerating units cgus that are expected to benefit 
from that business combination the carrying amount of goodwill has been allocated as follows
cashgenerating unit
carrying value 
1 july 2012
 £000
fair value
 adjustments
 £000
exchange
 differences
£000
transfer 
to single 
cgu 
£000
year ended 
30 june
2013 
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000
goodwill relating to the mitosciences cgu 2289 — 151 2440 — 2289
goodwill relating to the ascent scientific cgu note 26 7589 69 — 7658 — 7589
goodwill relating to the epitomics cgu note 26 72478 1436 814 71856 — 72478
goodwill relating to the abcam group cgu — — — 81954 81954 —
82356 1367 965 — 81954 82356
 goodwill is converted at the exchange rate on the date of acquisition and retranslated to the balance sheet rate
following the acquisitions of mitosciences ascent and epitomics there has been considerable change in the way these entities are 
structured and integrated within the abcam group these changes include redirecting sales through the abcam platform and the 
centralisation of the marketing technical and operational support consequently the discrete financial information which is available 
for an individual entity does not reflect the true substance of the performance of that entity and the value being added this means it 
is not possible to accurately assess the fair value in use of the acquired entities which formerly constituted the separately identifiable 
cgus to determine whether or not there is an indication of goodwill impairment
ias 36 requires that following a reorganisation in the business which results in a change in the composition of cgus goodwill should 
be reallocated to the units affected considering the changes above it is appropriate to reallocate the goodwill arising from the acquisitions 
to a single cgu which would reflect the reorganised business structure this cgu is tested for impairment on a groupwide basis using the 
future forecast cash flows arising from the abcam business as a whole
the group performs an annual test for goodwill impairment or more frequently if there are any indications that goodwill might be impaired
the recoverable amount of the cgu is determined from value in use calculations the key assumptions considered most sensitive for the value in 
use calculations are those regarding the discount rates growth rates and anticipated movements in selling prices and direct costs during the period
management has projected cash flows based on financial forecasts over a period of four years no growth rate has been used in the 
extrapolation of cash flows beyond the four years a discount rate of 11 has been estimated using pretax rates that reflect current 
market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the cgu
management has performed sensitivity analysis on the key assumptions mentioned above based on the results of this analysis 
management is satisfied that the carrying amount of goodwill exceeds its recoverable amount as such no impairment of goodwill 
has been recognised at the balance sheet date
due to the headroom which exists between the recoverable amount and the carrying value there is currently no reasonable possible 
change in any of these key assumptions which would cause the cgu’s carrying amount to exceed its recoverable amount abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 72
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
13 intangible assets
group
up front
licence 
fees 
£000 
distribution
rights 
£000 
software 
£000 
contract
 based
£000
assets
under
construction
£000
customer
relationships
£000
patents
technology 
and 
knowhow
£000
trade
names
£000
total
£000
cost 
at 1 july 2011 387 1393 250 1666 — — — — 3696
additions 47 81 117 — 773 — — — 1018
acquisition of subsidiaries 9 — 13 1901 — 5455 22812 2236 32426
at 1 july 2012 443 1474 380 3567 773 5455 22812 2236 37140
fair value adjustments — — — 115 — 665 8 214 986
additions 59 258 73 — 3248 — — — 3638
transfer to asset in use — — 3803 — 3803 — — — —
disposals 5 — 15 — — — — — 20
exchange differences — — 3 — — — — — 3
at 30 june 2013 497 1732 4244 3452 218 4790 22820 2022 39775
amortisation and impairment
at 1 july 2011 293 1127 168 11 — — — — 1599
charge for the year 64 147 69 255 — 134 528 47 1244
at 1 july 2012 357 1274 237 266 — 134 528 47 2843
charge for the year 63 66 427 775 — 497 1757 253 3838
disposals — — 15 — — — — — 15
exchange differences — — 2 — — — — — 2
at 30 june 2013 420 1340 651 1041 — 631 2285 300 6668
carrying amount
at 30 june 2012 86 200 143 3301 773 5321 22284 2189 34297
at 30 june 2013 77 392 3593 2411 218 4159 20535 1722 33107
company
up front 
licence fees 
£000 
distribution
rights 
£000 
software 
£000 
assets
under
construction
£000
total
£000
cost 
at 1 july 2011 387 1393 240 — 2020
additions 47 244 98 773 1162
at 1 july 2012 434 1637 338 773 3182
additions 59 490 54 3248 3851
transfer to asset in use — — 3803 3803 —
at 30 june 2013 493 2127 4195 218 7033
amortisation and impairment
at 1 july 2011 293 1127 166 — 1586
charge for the year 63 187 62 — 312
at 1 july 2012 356 1314 228 — 1898
charge for the year 63 303 408 — 774
at 30 june 2013 419 1617 636 — 2672
carrying amount
at 30 june 2012 78 323 110 773 1284
at 30 june 2013 74 510 3559 218 4361 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 73
13 intangible assets continued
company continued
the amortisation period for the up front licence fees and software is between three and five years the amortisation period for the 
distribution rights is the term of the agreement 
contract based intangibles predominately relates to two agreements an agreement with the university of oregon under which the 
university supplies monoclonal antibodies to mitosciences who has full rights and entitlement to commercially exploit these materials 
in exchange for an ongoing fee the remaining amortisation period is 12 years being the remaining term of the agreement and 
an agreement between epitomics and loyola university chicago for access to a patent the remaining amortisation period is to 
february 2015 being the expiry date of the agreement
assets under construction relate to the development of the core it systems architecture these are not amortised until being available for 
use in the business
customer relationships relates to access to new customers as part of the epitomics acquisition namely in the reagents and services 
business the remaining amortisation period is nine years in line with the history of the business
patents technology and knowhow relates to the acquired rabmab
®
 technology as part of the epitomics business the remaining 
amortisation period is 14 years being the remaining term of the primary patent
trade names relate to rabmab
®
 and epitomics the remaining amortisation period is seven years
14 property plant and equipment
group
computer
equipment 
£000 
laboratory
equipment 
£000 
office
equipment
fixtures
and fittings 
£000 
hybridomas 
£000 
hybridomas
under
construction
£000
motor 
vehicles
£000
total
£000
cost 
at 1 july 2011 1201 6207 1600 184 — — 9192
additions 307 962 423 211 115 — 2018
acquisition of subsidiary 46 732 208 984 604 94 2668
exchange differences 7 22 20 25 16 2 92
disposals 2 9 14 — — — 25
at 1 july 2012 1559 7914 2237 1404 735 96 13945
additions 329 1274 238 1343 437 52 3673
exchange differences — 113 28 40 25 8 214
disposals 122 36 7 — 35 — 200
at 30 june 2013 1766 9265 2496 2787 1162 156 17632
accumulated depreciation
at 1 july 2011 892 4809 925 85 — — 6711
charge for the year 231 817 341 83 — 2 1474
exchange differences 4 2 16 — — — 22
eliminated on disposals 2 9 14 — — — 25
at 1 july 2012 1125 5619 1268 168 — 2 8182
charge for the year 277 933 456 305 — 19 1990
exchange differences 1 71 35 10 — 3 120
eliminated on disposals 119 36 6 — — — 161
at 30 june 2013 1284 6587 1753 483 — 24 10131
carrying amount
at 30 june 2012 434 2295 969 1236 735 94 5763
at 30 june 2013 482 2678 743 2304 1162 132 7501 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 74
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
14 property plant and equipment continued
company
computer
equipment 
£000 
laboratory
equipment 
£000 
office
equipment
fixtures
and fittings 
£000 
hybridomas 
£000 
total
£000
cost
at 1 july 2011 893 5665 952 184 7694
additions 211 328 50 39 628
disposals — 3 9 — 12
at 1 july 2012 1104 5990 993 223 8310
additions 234 491 81 61 867
disposals 47 1 — — 48
at 30 june 2013 1291 6480 1074 284 9129
accumulated depreciation
at 1 july 2011 658 4472 472 85 5687
charge for the year 166 633 211 54 1064
eliminated on disposals — 3 9 — 12
at 1 july 2012 824 5102 674 139 6739
charge for the year 189 400 216 66 871
eliminated on disposals 45 1 — — 46
at 30 june 2013 968 5501 890 205 7564
carrying amount
at 30 june 2012 280 888 319 84 1571
at 30 june 2013 323 979 184 79 1565
15 investments in subsidiaries
the company’s subsidiaries at 30 june 2013 are
country of 
incorporation 
proportion
of shares 
held 
proportion 
of voting
power held
abcam inc us 100 100
abcam kk japan 100 100
abcam hong kong limited hong kong 100 100
abcam employee share benefit trust limited uk 100 100
abcam epitomics holdings inc us 100 100
abcam llc us 100 100
abcam us limited uk 100 100
abcam us group holdings inc us 100 100
ascent scientific limited uk 100 100
ascent scientific llc us 100 100
camgene limited dormant uk 100 100
epitomics inc us 100 100
epitomics hangzhou biotechnology co limited china 100 100
epitomics hong kong limited hong kong 100 100
mitosciences inc us 100 100
  overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 75
15 investments in subsidiaries continued
analysis of changes in investments
note £000
at 1 july 2011 4041
additions 129
addition relating to acquisition of subsidiaries 26 118942
at 1 july 2012 123112
transfer of shares in subsidiary undertakings 113102
purchase of shares in subsidiary undertaking 85872
fair value adjustment to acquired subsidiary 26 42
at 30 june 2013 95840
following the acquisition of epitomics inc in april 2012 the group undertook a restructuring to consolidate the ownership of its us subsidiaries 
on 20 december 2012 abcam plc transferred its shareholding in epitomics inc mitosciences inc and abcam inc to abcam us limited 
an indirect subsidiary of the company 
in consideration for the shares of us subsidiaries abcam plc received total consideration of £1271m made up of shares in group 
companies of £859m and intragroup receivables of 67m see note 19 
investments are held at cost less provision for impairment
16 deferred tax assets and liabilities
the following are the major deferred tax liabilities and assets recognised by the group and company and movements thereon during 
the current and prior reporting periods
group
accelerated 
tax 
depreciation
£000 
cash
flow 
hedges 
£000 
sharebased 
payment 
£000 
other
timing
differences 
£000 
total
£000
at 30 june 2011 117 167 3164 135 3079
acquisition of subsidiaries 601 — — 10341 10942
chargecredit to income 120 — 229 376 485
fair value adjustments note 26 — — — 233 233
charge to equity — 380 619 — 999
exchange differences 20 — 2 92 74
at 30 june 2012 858 213 2776 10241 8536
chargecredit to income 520 — 227 141 152
fair value adjustments note 26 26 — — 2624 2650
creditcharge to equity — 525 841 — 316
exchange differences 44 — — 125 81
at 30 june 2013 1396 312 2162 7351 6273
deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset where the group has a legally enforceable right to do so the following is the analysis of the 
deferred tax balances after offset for financial reporting purposes
30 june
2013
£000
30 june
2012
£000
30 june 
2011
£000
deferred tax assets 5011 4401 3509
deferred tax liabilities 11284 12937 430
6273 8536 3079
the deferred tax liability of £11284000 2012 £12937000 has been recognised in relation to the acquired intangible assets as a result 
of the acquisitions amounts released from this liability during the period were £1259000 2012 £374000 representing the decrease 
of the deferred tax liability in line with amortisation charged against the carrying value of the associated intangible assets a further 
£394000 relates to the deferred tax movement arising from a fair value adjustment to acquired intangible assets see note 26 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 76
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
16 deferred tax assets and liabilities continued
company
accelerated 
tax 
depreciation
£000 
cash
flow 
hedges 
£000 
 
sharebased 
payment 
£000 
other
timing
differences 
£000 
total
£000
at 30 june 2011 62 167 2516 35 2656
creditcharge 113 — 331 5 439
charge to equity — 380 302 — 682
at 30 june 2012 51 213 2545 30 2413
chargecredit to income 9 — 226 5 222
creditcharge to equity — 525 765 — 240
at 30 june 2013 42 312 2006 35 2395
at the balance sheet date there are no aggregate temporary differences associated with undistributed earnings of subsidiaries for which 
a deferred tax liability has not been recognised 2012 £nil no temporary differences exist in the current year as a result of a change to 
the uk tax legislation which largely exempts dividends from uk tax if received on or after 1 july 2009 the directors believe that all 
dividends to be paid by the company’s subsidiaries will meet the criteria for exemption from uk tax
17 inventories
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
raw materials 1113 497 — —
work in progress 739 621 — —
finished goods 13478 14296 15630 13539
15330 15414 15630 13539
18 financial assets
trade and other receivables
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
amounts receivable for the sale of goods 11886 10478 3900 3051
allowance for doubtful debts 411 433 140 101
11475 10045 3760 2950
amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings — — 9413 6278
other debtors 4578 2701 1139 1198
prepayments 1387 1540 750 778
17440 14286 15062 11204
trade receivables
the average credit period taken for sales is 345 days 2012 340 days no interest has been charged on the receivables trade 
receivables are provided for based on estimated irrecoverable amounts determined by reference to past default experience the group 
and company have provided fully for all receivables over 90 days past due because historical experience is such that receivables that 
are past due beyond 90 days are generally not recoverable trade receivables between 30 days and 90 days are provided for based 
on estimated irrecoverable amounts from the sale of goods determined by reference to past default experience
credit limits for each customer are reviewed on a monthly basis no customer represents more than 5 of the total balance of trade receivables
the analysis below shows the balances included in debtors which are past due at the reporting date for which the group or company 
has not provided as there has not been a significant change in credit quality and the amounts are still considered recoverable neither 
the group nor company holds any collateral or other credit enhancements over these balances nor do they have a legal right to offset 
against any amounts owed to the counterparty  overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 77
18 financial assets continued
trade receivables continued
ageing of past due but not impaired receivables
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
0 to 30 days overdue 2532 1721 877 454
30 to 60 days overdue 277 467 31 41
2809 2188 908 495
movement in the allowance for doubtful debts
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
balance at the beginning of the year 433 323 101 124
acquisition of subsidiaries — 106 — —
impairment lossesgains recognised through income statement 20 4 44 17
exchange differences on translation of foreign operations 4 3 — —
amounts written off as uncollectable 66 25 5 10
amounts recovered during the year 28 22 — 4
balance at the end of the year 411 433 140 101
in determining the recoverability of a trade receivable the group and company consider any change in the credit quality of the receivable from 
the date credit was initially granted up to the reporting date the concentration of credit risk is limited due to the customer base being large and 
unrelated accordingly the directors believe that there is no further credit provision required in excess of the allowance for doubtful debts
ageing of impaired receivables
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
0 to 30 days overdue 81 94 23 16
30 to 60 days overdue 201 178 77 51
60 to 90 days overdue 78 89 20 21
more than 90 days overdue 51 72 20 13
411 433 140 101
the directors consider that the carrying amount of trade and other receivables approximates their fair value
19 loan receivable
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
amount owed by subsidiary undertaking — — 44175 —
the amount owed to the company represents two interest bearing loans due from abcam us group holdings inc of 33m and 34m 
interest being incurred at rates of 734 and 869 respectively the loans are repayable on 20 december 2017 and 2019 respectively 
and are unsecured see note 15 for further details abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 78
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
20 availableforsale financial asset
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
shares 703 679
as part of the epitomics acquisition see note 26 the group acquired a 13 interest in plexbio co limited plexbio a privately owned 
biotechnology company headquartered in t aiwan plexbio was established to research develop and manufacture in vitro diagnostic ivd kits
21 derivative financial instruments
group and company 30 june 2013
current noncurrent
asset
£000
liability
£000
asset
£000
liability
£000 
total
£000 
derivatives that are designated and effective as hedging  
instruments carried at fair value
forward exchange contracts 145 1160 29 375 1361
derivatives carried at fair value through profit and loss fvtpl
forward exchange contracts that are not designated in hedge 
accounting relationships 386 179 — — 207
531 1339 29 375 1154
group and company 30 june 2012
current noncurrent
asset
£000
liability
£000
asset
£000
liability
£000 
total
£000 
derivatives that are designated and effective as hedging 
instruments carried at fair value
forward exchange contracts 708 20 204 10 882
derivatives carried at fair value through profit and loss fvtpl
forward exchange contracts that are not designated in hedge 
accounting relationships 175 66 — — 109
883 86 204 10 991
further details of derivative financial instruments are provided in note 27
22 other financial liabilities
trade and other payables
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
amounts falling due within one year
trade payables 4812 4148 3930 3175
amounts owed to subsidiary undertakings — — 4579 1373
borrowings owed to subsidiary undertakings — — — 5059
accruals and deferred income 7579 5665 4501 3193
other taxes and social security 1239 333 295 274
other creditors 687 580 9 —
14317 10726 13314 13074
trade payables and accruals principally comprise amounts outstanding for trade purchases and ongoing costs at 30 june 2013 
the group had an average of 32 days of purchases 2012 34 days outstanding in trade payables excluding accruals and deferred 
income most suppliers do not charge interest for the first 60 days of the invoice the group has financial risk management policies 
in place to ensure that all payables are paid within the credit timetable the directors consider that the carrying amount of trade 
and other payables approximates to their fair value overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 79
23 commitments
year ended 
30 june
2013
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000
minimum lease payments under operating leases recognised as an expense in the year
– land and buildings 2180 1362
at the balance sheet date the group and company had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under  
noncancellable operating leases all of which relate to land and buildings which fall due as follows
group company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
within one year 2251 2208 833 833
in the second to fifth years inclusive 6227 5554 3180 1272
after five years 23 70 — —
8501 7832 4013 2105
the above table reflects the committed cash payments under operating leases rather than the expected charge to the income statement in the 
relevant periods the effect on the income statement will differ to the above figures to the extent of the amortisation of a £11m lease incentive 
received on signing of a new lease in 200809 and also the amortisation of the rentfree period included in the same lease agreement 
the charge in 201314 on these operating leases is expected to be £23m for the group and £08m for the company 
24 capital and reserves
share capital
group and company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
issued and fully paid
199378377 2012 198211177 ordinary shares of 02 pence each 399 397
the movement during the year on the company’s issued and fully paid shares was as follows
2013
number
2013
£000 
2012
£000
balance at beginning of year 198211177 397 364
issue of share capital 1167200 2 33
balance at end of year 199378377 399 397
the company has one class of ordinary shares which carry no right to fixed income
share premium
group and company
£000
balance at 1 july 2011 15400
premium arising on issue of equity shares 56413
balance at 1 july 2012 71813
premium arising on issue of equity shares 1095
balance at 30 june 2013 72908
there were no costs of issue incurred during the year or the previous year abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 80
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
24 capital and reserves continued
own shares
group and company
£000
balance at 1 july 2012 1586
acquired in the period 381
disposed of on exercise of options 95
balance at 30 june 2013 1872
this balance represents the cost of 786145 shares with a nominal value of £1572 in abcam plc 2012 866435 which were issued 
by the company at market value and held by the abcam employee share benefit trust these shares are held in order to satisfy 
the free shares and matching shares elements of the sip  see note 28 for further details of this scheme
reserves
translation reserve
the translation reserve comprises foreign currency differences from the translation of the financial statements of foreign operations
sharebased payment reserve
the sharebased payment reserve comprises the ifrs 2 charge for the fair value of sharebased options and awards
hedging reserve
the hedging reserve comprises gains and losses recognised on cash flow hedges and the associated deferred tax assets and liabilities created
deferred tax reserve
the deferred tax reserve comprises the portion of the deferred tax arising on outstanding share options exercised and not taken to the 
profit and loss in accordance with ias 12
25 dividends
year ended 
30 june
2013 
£000 
year ended
30 june
2012
£000
amounts recognised as distributions to equity holders in the year
final dividend for the year ended 30 june 2012 of 436 pence 2011 380 pence per share 8650 6958
interim dividend for the year ended 30 june 2013 of 194 pence 2012 169 pence per share 3856 3103
total distributions to equity holders in the period 12506 10061
proposed final dividend for the year ended 30 june 2013 of 510 pence 2012 436 pence per share 10168 8642
the proposed final dividend is subject to approval of the shareholders at the agm and has not been included as a liability in these 
financial statements 
26 acquisition of subsidiaries 
there were no acquisitions made during the year ended 30 june 2013 details of prior year acquisitions and their final reported values 
at their respective acquisition dates are given below
details of prior year acquisitions
epitomics inc
on 19 april 2012 the company acquired 100 of the issued share capital of epitomics inc epitomics for total consideration of 1700m 
£1089m total consideration comprised 925m £575m cash and 14498923 abcam plc ordinary shares of 02 pence with a value 
of 775m based upon the average of the high and low trading prices of abcam ordinary shares on the alternative investment market of the 
london stock exchange for the five trading days ending on 2 march 2012 being the date of execution of the merger agreement and a fair 
value of £514m based on the closing share price on the date of acquisition in accordance with ifrs 3
epitomics based in the usa with operations in china is focused on the development production and distribution of monoclonal antibodies 
rabmabs
®
 it has three core business units reagents antibodies custom antibodies and in vitro diagnostics immunohistochemistry ivd ihc 
the reagents antibodies business unit develops and distributes rabmabs
®
 for academic and pharmaceutical research applications the custom 
antibodies business unit develops rabmabs
®
 to address customers’ specific needs where catalogue antibodies are not suitable and provides 
solutions for research and diagnostic applications the ivd business unit provides rabmabs
®
 primarily for clinical diagnosis and prognosis 
of certain cancers including colon prostate ovarian and lymphoma additionally epitomics generates income from certain royalty payments 
and licence deals that it has with life science tools companies that pay to utilise aspects of epitomics’s patented rabmab
®
 technology 
in the development and manufacture of their own antibodies overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 81
26 acquisition of subsidiaries continued
details of prior year acquisitions continued
epitomics inc continued 
epitomics represents a highly compelling strategic fit for the group and supports the company’s vision of becoming the world’s leading 
life science research tools company the acquisition provides the group with extensive knowhow in rabmab
®
 technology and will help 
to diversify the group’s product offering and customer base epitomics also provides the group with a custom antibody service offering 
and a highquality entrypoint to the ivd ihc market the group intends to leverage its existing customer base and strong global marketing 
and distribution expertise with epitomics’s rabmab
®
 products technology and product pipeline
the table below summarises the consideration paid for epitomics as well as the amounts recognised at the acquisition date of the assets 
acquired and liabilities assumed in accordance with ifrs 3 revised the company has considered all pertinent factors in relation to information 
obtained after the acquisition date which would affect the provisional values reported during the permitted measurement period of one 
year from the acquisition date adjustments have been made to the provisional values and these are summarised in the table below
provisional 
values 
reported 
£000
fair value
 adjustments 
£000
final 
values 
£000
recognised amounts of identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed
noncurrent assets
intangible assets 30184 986 29198
property plant and equipment 2532 — 2532
deferred tax asset 1023 1483 2506
current assets
availableforsale investment 662 — 662
inventories 2109 507 1602
trade and other receivables 3230 — 3230
current tax prepaid 502 68 570
cash and cash equivalents 7800 — 7800
term deposits 4647 — 4647
deferred tax asset 683 773 1456
current liabilities
trade and other payables 4843 211 4632
noncurrent liabilities
deferred tax liability 12065 394 11671
total identifiable net assets 36464 1436 37900
goodwill 72478 1436 71042
total consideration 108942 — 108942
settled by
cash 57507 — 57507
equity instruments 14498923 ordinary shares of abcam plc 51435 — 51435
total consideration transferred 108942 — 108942
net cash outflow arising on acquisition
cash consideration 57507 — 57507
less cash cash equivalent balances and term deposits acquired 12447 — 12447
45060 — 45060
the goodwill of £71042000 arising from the acquisition represents the acquired product pipeline opportunities a highly knowledgeable 
workforce and the going concern value to perpetuity relating to the identified intangible assets with assumed finite useful lives none of the 
goodwill recognised is expected to be deductible for tax purposes
acquisitionrelated costs totalling £3213000 are included within administrative expenses in the consolidated income statement for the 
year ended 30 june 2012 no further acquisitionrelated costs have been incurred since the year ended 30 june 2012
the fair value of trade and other receivables is £3230000 which includes trade receivables with a fair value of £2176000 and a gross 
contractual value of £2245000 of which £69000 is expected to be uncollectable
during the period from the date of acquisition to 30 june 2012 epitomics contributed £3246000 to the group’s revenue from sales 
to third parties and a profit of £496000 to the group’s profit before tax after amortisation of intangibles of £476000
if epitomics had been consolidated from 1 july 2011 unaudited group revenues for the year ended 30 june 2012 would have been £110468000 
and unaudited group profit before tax would have been £34584000 after amortisation of intangibles of £3356000 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 82
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
26 acquisition of subsidiaries continued
details of prior year acquisitions continued
ascent scientific limited
on 12 september 2011 the company acquired 100 of the issued share capital of ascent scientific limited ascent for total consideration 
of £10m total consideration comprised £6m cash and 1157481 abcam plc ordinary shares of 02p each with a total fair value of £4m 
being derived from the rolling 25 day average price of 34558p per share terminating three trading days prior to completion 
ascent a ukbased company focuses on building a range of highquality biochemicals for use by scientific researchers for modulating 
the function of proteins the acquisition further extends the group’s product portfolio and is in line with the strategy of becoming the 
world’s leading life science research tools company
the table below summarises the consideration paid for ascent as well as the amounts recognised at the acquisition date of the assets 
acquired and liabilities assumed in accordance with ifrs 3 revised the company has considered all pertinent factors in relation to 
information obtained after the acquisition date which would affect the provisional values reported during the permitted measurement 
period of one year from the acquisition date adjustments have been made to the provisional values and these are summarised in the 
table below
provisional
 values
 reported
£000
fair value
 adjustments
£000
final 
values
£000
recognised amounts of identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed
noncurrent assets
intangible assets 2241 — 2241
property plant and equipment 136 — 136
current assets
inventories 511 50 461
trade and other receivables 263 — 263
cash and cash equivalents 199 — 199
current liabilities
trade and other payables 189 83 272
current tax liabilities 67 22 45
borrowings 14 — 14
noncurrent liabilities
borrowings 86 — 86
deferred tax liability 583 — 583
total identifiable net assets 2411 111 2300
goodwill 7589 69 7658
total consideration 10000 42 9958
settled by
cash 6000 42 5958
equity instruments 1157481 ordinary shares of abcam plc 4000 — 4000
total consideration transferred 10000 42 9958
net cash outflow arising on acquisition
cash consideration 6000 42 5958
less cash and cash equivalent balances acquired net of borrowings 99 — 99
5901 42 5859
the goodwill of £7658000 arising from the acquisition represents the acquired product pipeline opportunities expanded customer base 
and a highly knowledgeable workforce none of the goodwill recognised is expected to be deductible for tax purposes
acquisitionrelated costs totalling £146000 are included within administrative expenses in the consolidated income statement for the year 
ended 30 june 2012 no further acquisitionrelated costs have been since the year ended 30 june 2012
the fair value of trade and other receivables is £263000 which includes trade receivables with a fair value of £131000 and a gross 
contractual value of £168000 of which £37000 is expected to be uncollectable
during the period from the date of acquisition to 30 june 2012 ascent contributed £1373000 to the group’s revenue from sales to third 
parties and a profit of £18000 to the group’s profit before tax after amortisation of intangibles of £360000
if ascent had been consolidated from 1 july 2011 unaudited group revenues for the year ended 30 june 2012 would have been 
£98127000 and unaudited group profit before tax would have been £34573000 after amortisation of intangibles of £1047000 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 83
27 financial instruments
capital risk management
the group manages its capital to ensure that entities in the group will be able to continue as a going concern whilst maximising the 
return to stakeholders the capital structure of the group consists of cash and cash equivalents and equity attributable to the equity 
holders of the parent comprising issued capital reserves and retained earnings
significant accounting policies
details of the significant accounting policies and methods adopted including the criteria for recognition the basis of measurement and 
the basis on which income and expenses are recognised in respect of each class of financial asset financial liability and equity instrument 
are disclosed in note 3 foreign exchange contracts are measured using quoted forward exchange rates and the yield curves derived 
from quoted interest rates matching maturities of these contracts
categories of financial instruments
group
carrying value
company
carrying value
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
financial assets
loans and receivables
amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings — — 53588 6278
trade receivables 11475 10045 3760 2950
vat recoverable included in other debtors 1171 1244 1092 1171
12646 11289 58440 10399
cash and cash equivalents
cash and cash equivalents and term deposits 38311 17480 26295 9005
loans and receivables including cash and cash equivalents 50957 28769 84735 19404
financial liabilities
other financial liabilities at amortised cost
trade and other payables 6738 5061 4234 3449
current tax liabilities 2325 3791 4716 3850
amortised cost 9063 8852 8950 7299
 financial liabilities at amortised cost within trade and other payables consist of trade payables intercompany payables other taxes and other payables
the directors consider there to be no material difference between the book value and the fair value of the group’s financial assets 
and liabilities at the balance sheet date this is because most of the financial assets and liabilities are short term
fair value measurements recognised in the balance sheet
financial instruments that are measured subsequent to initial recognition at fair value have been classified using a fair value hierarchy that 
reflects the significance of the inputs used in measuring the fair value of those instruments the fair value hierarchy has the following levels
  level 1 fair value measurements are those derived from quoted prices unadjusted in active markets for identical assets or liabilities
  level 2 fair value measurements are those derived from inputs other than quoted prices included within level 1 that are observable 
for the asset or liability either directly ie as prices or indirectly ie derived from prices and
  level 3 fair value measurements are those derived from valuation techniques that include inputs for the asset or liability that are not 
based on observable market data unobservable market inputs
the group’s derivatives meet the definition of level 2 as outlined above there were no transfers between level 1 and 2 during the year
risk in relation to the use of financial instruments
credit risk
credit risk refers to the risk that a counterparty will default on its contractual obligations resulting in financial loss to the group or the 
company trade receivables consist of a large number of customers spread across diverse geographical areas the group does not have 
a significant credit risk exposure to any single counterparty ongoing credit evaluation is performed on the financial condition of accounts 
receivable and consideration is given as to whether there is any impairment in the value of any amounts owing
the standard payment terms for receivables other than intragroup balances are 30 days any variation in these terms requires authorisation 
by senior management yearend debtor days are 345 days 2012 340 days all overdue debts are provided for where collectability 
is considered doubtful or the value of the debt is impaired objective evidence of impairment could include the group’s past experience 
of collecting payments an increase in the number of delayed payments in the portfolio past the average credit period of 345 days 
as well as observable changes in international or local economic conditions abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 84
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
27 financial instruments continued
risk in relation to the use of financial instruments continued
credit risk continued
the standard payment terms for intragroup receivables are 45 days there is not considered to be any risk of impairment of these 
receivables unless the financial assets of the entity holding the corresponding liability are impaired 
the credit risk on liquid funds and derivative financial instruments is limited because the counterparties are major financial institutions 
funds are split between at least two institutions the carrying amount best represents the maximum exposure to credit risk
market risk
the group’s activities expose it primarily to the financial risks of changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates the group 
enters into forward exchange contracts to hedge the exchange rate risk arising on the sales of goods and services denominated in 
us dollars euros and japanese yen
foreign currency risk management
the group undertakes certain transactions denominated in foreign currencies the group’s policy is to maintain natural hedges where 
possible by matching foreign currency revenue and expenditure exchange rate exposures are managed within approved policy 
parameters utilising forward exchange contracts
the carrying amounts of the group’s foreign currency denominated monetary assets and liabilities at the reporting date not denominated 
in the local functional currency are as follows
liabilities assets
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000 
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
euros 247 243 7020 2400
us dollars 5758 3455 11813 13114
japanese yen 33 77 3146 2229
hong kong dollars — — 84 34
6038 3775 22063 17777
foreign currency sensitivity analysis
the group’s principal functional currency is sterling the group is mainly exposed to us dollars euros and japanese yen 
the following table details the group’s sensitivity to an 8 increase and decrease in the sterling exchange rate against the relevant foreign 
currencies on the group’s profit before tax and equity 8 represents management’s assessment of the reasonable possible change in 
foreign exchange rates the sensitivity analysis includes only outstanding foreign currency denominated monetary items and forward 
exchange contracts in the balance sheet at the end of the relevant accounting period and adjusts their translation at the period end for 
an 8 change in foreign currency rates it does not represent the overall impact on group profitability if the exchange rate sensitivity had 
been applied through the reporting period a positive number indicates an increase in profit or equity
yen currency impact euro currency impact us dollar currency impact
2013
£000 
2012
£000 
2013
£000 
2012
£000 
2013
£000 
2012
£000
effect of an 8 strengthening in relevant 
exchange rate on
profit or loss 231 35 501 — 448 45
other equity 631 535 1840 1289 2182 1266
effect of an 8 weakening in relevant 
exchange rate on
profit or loss 271 42 589 — 685 53
other equity 741 628 2160 1513 2402 1486
in management’s opinion the sensitivity analysis is unrepresentative of the inherent foreign exchange risk since it is limited to the yearend 
exposure and does not reflect the exposure during the year 
forward exchange contracts
it is the policy of the group to enter into forward exchange contracts to manage the risk associated with anticipated sales transactions 
out to 15 months within 30 to 95 of the exposure generated upon maturity of a forward exchange contract the group may enter 
into a new contract designated as a separate hedging relationship
foreign currency forward contracts are valued using quoted forward exchange rates and the yield curves derived from quoted interest 
rates matching maturities of the contracts overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 85
27 financial instruments continued
forward exchange contracts continued
the following table details the forward exchange contracts outstanding as at the year end
outstanding contracts
average 
rate 
30 june
2013
foreign 
currency 
30 june
2013
000 
contract 
value 
30 june
2013
£000 
fair
value
30 june
2013
£000
sell us dollars
less than 3 months 157 7590 4846 151
3 to 6 months 155 10290 6620 159
7 to 12 months 155 21050 13546 331
13 to 15 months 155 10800 6951 173
156 49730 31963 814
sell euros
less than 3 months 120 €5725 4786 118
3 to 6 months 119 €6750 5668 121
7 to 12 months 119 €13500 11328 267
13 to 15 months 119 €6750 5653 154
119 €32725 27435 660
sell yen
less than 3 months 12621 ¥298645 2366 384
3 to 6 months 15132 ¥306890 2028 11
7 to 12 months 15129 ¥639420 4226 34
13 to 15 months 15092 ¥333000 2207 19
14574 ¥1577955 10827 320
total of outstanding forward contracts 70225 1154
outstanding contracts
average 
rate 
30 june
2012 
foreign 
currency 
30 june
2012 
000 
contract 
value 
30 june
2012 
£000 
fair
value
30 june
2012 
£000
sell us dollars
less than 3 months 158 5977 3780 29
3 to 6 months 156 6050 3879 23
7 to 12 months 156 12400 7951 43
13 to 15 months 156 6350 4071 20
156 30777 19681 57
sell euros
less than 3 months 116 €4758 4091 243
3 to 6 months 119 €4825 4050 143
7 to 12 months 119 €9925 8340 284
13 to 15 months 119 €5075 4258 129
119 €24583 20739 799
sell yen
less than 3 months 12826 ¥209486 1633 42
3 to 6 months 12179 ¥215350 1768 42
7 to 12 months 12142 ¥448700 3696 89
13 to 15 months 12103 ¥233575 1930 46
12265 ¥1107111 9027 135
total of outstanding forward contracts 49447 991
at 30 june 2013 the fair value of contracts held as cash flow hedges is an asset of £207000 2012 asset of £883000 the remaining 
contracts are not held as cash flow hedges abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 86
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
27 financial instruments continued
liquidity risk management
ultimate responsibility for liquidity risk management rests with the board of directors which has built an appropriate liquidity risk management 
framework for the management of the group’s short medium and longterm funding and liquidity management requirements
the group manages liquidity risk by maintaining adequate reserves and banking facilities continuously monitoring cash flows and 
matching the maturity profiles of financial assets and liabilities
the group and company hold cash deposits at call or with a maturity of up to five years at 30 june 2013 the average maturity of 
balances was 693 days 2012 856 days of fixed rate deposits not sensitive to changes in interest rates sufficient funds are readily 
available to the company to meet operational requirements
trade payables are normally payable within 30 days of invoice and the standard payment terms for intragroup receivables are 45 days
liquidity and interest risk tables – financial liabilities
all balances are capital and do not include accrued interest
weighted
average
interest 
rate 
 
on demand 
1 month 
£000 
1 to 3 
months 
£000 
3 months
to 1 year 
£000 
total
£000
group
2013
trade payables — 4562 229 20 4811
accruals and deferred income — 2129 3934 1516 7579
6691 4163 1536 12390
company
2013
trade payables — 3900 30 — 3930
accruals and deferred income — 1296 1929 1275 4500
5196 1959 1275 8430
weighted
average
interest 
rate 
 
on demand 
1 month 
£000 
1 to 3 
months 
£000 
3 months
to 1 year 
£000 
total
£000
group
2012
trade payables — 3948 180 20 4148
accruals and deferred income — 2057 1390 2218 5665
6005 1570 2238 9813
company
2012
trade payables — 3073 96 6 3175
accruals and deferred income — 1202 1185 806 3193
4275 1281 812 6368
interest rate risk sensitivity analysis
an increase of 025 in the average interest rate during the year would have resulted in an increase in interest received by the group 
of £70000 2012 £91000 and by the company of £44000 2012 £78000 a decrease of 025 in the average interest rate during 
the year would have resulted in a reduction in interest received by the group of £70000 2012 £91000 and by the company of 
£44000 2012 £78000 there would have been no effect on equity reserves
the average cash and term deposits balance throughout the year has been used as the basis for the calculations a 025 increase 
or decrease in interest rates represents management’s assessment of the reasonable possible change in interest rates overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 87
28 sharebased payments
equitysettled share option scheme
the company operates a number of share option schemes for certain employees of the group the sharebased payments charge 
relates to option awards from the emi scheme unapproved share option plan the abcam inc share scheme the abcam 2005 share 
option scheme the saye scheme the abcam company share option plan csop the ltip and the sip  option grants under each 
scheme have been aggregated
the vesting period for grants under the saye scheme is either three years or five years as selected by the employee at the date of grant 
those options with performance criteria vest when the criteria are met the vesting period for all other options is from one to three years 
if the options remain unexercised after a period of ten years from the date of grant the options expire options are forfeited if the employee 
leaves the group before the options vest
the volatility of the options is based on the average of standard deviations of daily continuous returns on abcam plc shares the dividend 
yield is based on abcam’s actual dividend yield in the past
the riskfree rate is the yield on uk government gilts at each date of grant the employee exercise multiple is based on published statistics for 
a portfolio of companies the employee exit rate is based on management’ s expectations and in accordance with ifrs 2 is applied after vesting
the group recorded a total sharebased payments expense of £1391000 in the year 2012 £1556000 of which £1211000 2012 £1370000 
was included within administration and management expenses and £180000 2012 £186000 was included within rd expenses
summary of all schemes excluding sip and ltip
options outstanding as at 30 june 2013 had an exercise price of between 5 pence and 385 pence 2012 5 pence and 370 pence 
the weighted average remaining contractual life is 716 years 2012 669 years the weighted average fair value of the options 
outstanding at the end of the year was 7802 pence 2012 5718 pence the group recorded a total sharebased payments 
expense of £573000 2012 £310000 in the year relating to all schemes excluding the sip and ltip 
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 2618082 17335 3019754 12616
granted during year 796060 38500 467400 37000
forfeited during year 198625 29319 194019 23763
exercised during year 843917 9382 675053 7997
outstanding at the end of year 2371600 26095 2618082 17335
exercisable at end of year 956369 9551 1323857 6309
enterprise management incentive emi scheme
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 359987 5729 489425 5633
exercised during year 81277 4604 129438 5366
outstanding at the end of year 278710 6057 359987 5729
exercisable at end of year 278710 6057 359987 5729
the size of the group means that since 2009 it is no longer able to grant awards under the emi scheme abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 88
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
28 sharebased payments continued
unapproved share option plan
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 746150 5795 758705 5802
exercised during year 369880 4218 12555 6240
outstanding at the end of year 376270 7345 746150 5795
exercisable at end of year 376270 7345 746150 5795
further grants of unapproved options are now being made under the abcam 2005 share option scheme
abcam inc share scheme
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year — — 26400 6240
exercised during year — — 26400 6240
outstanding at the end of year — — — —
exercisable at end of year — — — —
further grants of options to abcam’s us employees are now being made under the abcam 2005 share option scheme
saye scheme
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 10795 4980 58640 4687
exercised during year 10795 4980 47845 4621
outstanding at the end of year — — 10795 4980
exercisable at end of year — — 10795 4980
the abcam 2005 share option scheme
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 842673 25488 1150248 15559
granted during year 652183 38500 319345 37000
forfeited during year 119661 34637 168105 23765
exercised during year 260288 14169 458815 9240
outstanding at the end of year 1114907 30218 842673 25488
exercisable at end of year 122750 11833 206925 9240 overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 89
28 sharebased payments continued
the abcam csop
2013 2012
number of 
share 
options
weighted 
average 
exercise 
price pence 
number of 
share 
options 
weighted
average
exercise
price pence
outstanding at beginning of year 658477 26524 536336 23498
granted during year 143877 38500 148055 37000
forfeited during year 78964 21259 25914 23752
exercised during year 121677 18423 — —
outstanding at the end of year 601713 31046 658477 26524
exercisable at end of year 178639 18080 — —
fair value calculation
the fair value of the option schemes other than those options with marketbased performance criteria has been calculated using the 
trinomial method the inputs into the model are as follows
emi scheme
grant date
16 june
2003 
16 june
2003 
5 july
2004 
17 december
2004 
27 may
2005 
5 september
2005
share price at grant pence 2 2 5 6 125 125
fair value at valuation date pence 052 052 170 246 384 382
exercise price pence 5 75 5 5 125 125
expected volatility 40 40 35 35 30 30
expected life years 3 308 2 288 2 2
expected dividend yield 11 11 11 11 11 11
riskfree rate 397 397 508 449 431 415
employee exercise multiple 2 2 2 2 2 2
employee exit rate 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
 rebased to reflect the five for one share subdivision which took place on 15 november 2010
csop
grant date
9 november 
2009 
2 december 
2010
1 november 
2011
1 november
2012 
share price at grant pence 1824 390 37075 389
fair value at valuation date pence 57528 145 119 96
exercise price pence 1808 345 370 385
expected volatility 34 37 39 33
expected life years 6 6 6 6
expected dividend yield 124 062 142 156
riskfree rate 321 256 150 041
employee exercise multiple 2 2 2 2 
employee exit rate 1000 1000 1000 000 
 rebased to reflect the five for one share subdivision which took place on 15 november 2010 abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 90
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
28 sharebased payments continued
unapproved share option plan
grant date
20 december
2004 
20 december
2004 
30 september
2005 
30 september
2005 
27 october
2005
share price at grant pence 6 6 125 125 334
fair value at valuation date pence 224 232 378 204 1115
exercise price pence 5 5 125 25 30
expected volatility 35 35 30 30 30
expected life years 154 2 182 182 1635
expected dividend yield 11 11 11 11 11
riskfree rate 446 446 429 429 440
employee exercise multiple 2 2 2 2 2
employee exit rate 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
 rebased to reflect the five for one share subdivision which took place on 15 november 2010
saye scheme
grant date
2 october
2006 
2 october
2006 
8 november
2007 
8 november
2007
share price at grant pence 56 56 624 624
fair value at valuation date pence 208 226 212 244
exercise price pence 448 448 498 498
expected volatility 30 30 30 30
expected life years 3 5 3 5
expected dividend yield 11 11 15 15
riskfree rate 454 454 480 480
employee exercise multiple 2 2 2 2
employee exit rate 1000 1000 1200 1200
 rebased to reflect the five for one share subdivision which took place on 15 november 2010
the abcam 2005 share option scheme
the fair value of options issued after september 2006 with marketbased performance criteria is calculated using the monte carlo model 
the inputs into the monte carlo model are as follows
grant date
7 september
2006 
8 november
2007 
7 may
2008 
6 november
2008
9 november 
2009
2 december
2010
1 november
2011
1 november
 2012
share price at grant pence 56 624 826 925 1808 373 370 389
fair value at valuation date pence 168 178 246 23 576 138 119 96
exercise price pence 56 624 826 924 1808 345 370 385
expected volatility 30 30 30 24 34 37 39 33
expected life years 3 301 3 3 6 6 6 6
expected dividend yield 11 15 15 087 124 062 142 156
riskfree rate 457 480 479 390 321 256 150 041
employee exercise multiple 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
employee exit rate 953 1200 1200 000 000 000 000 000
 rebased to reflect the five for one share subdivision which took place on 15 november 2010
sip
all uk based employees are eligible to participate in the sip whereby employees buy shares in the company these shares are called 
partnership shares and are held in trust on behalf of the employee for every partnership share bought by the employee the company 
will give the employee one share free of charge matching shares provided the employee remains employed by the company for a 
period of at least three years the employees must take their shares out of the plan on leaving the company and will not be entitled to the 
matching shares if they leave within three years of buying the partnership shares in addition the company can also award employees 
up to a maximum of £3000 of shares free shares there are no vesting conditions attached to the free shares other than being 
continuously employed by the company for three years from the date of grant overview strategic review performance review financial statements corporate governance
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 91
28 sharebased payments continued
sip continued
number of
free shares
number of
matching shares
2013 2012 2013 2012
outstanding at beginning of year 540330 486923 130749 102696
granted during year 138607 133837 37374 38514
forfeited during year 32645 27624 5631 5862
released during year 55020 52806 7635 4599
outstanding at the end of year 591272 540330 154857 130749
exercisable at end of year 251325 163930 58450 30650
for the purposes of ifrs 2 the fair value of these matching shares and free shares is determined as the market value of the shares at the 
date of grant no valuation model is required to calculate the fair value of awards under the sip  the fair value of an equity based payment 
under the sip is the face value of the award on the date of grant because the participants are entitled to receive the full value of the shares 
and there are no market based performance conditions attached to the awards
the group recognised a total expense of £561000 2012 £404000 in the year relating to matching and free share awards
ltip
the company approved a new ltip in 2008 to date vesting of performance share awards made under this scheme to the executive 
management team have been conditional upon achievement of two separate performance conditions full details of these performance 
conditions are shown in the directors’ remuneration report in 2010 ltip awards were also made to members of senior management 
in addition to the executive management team vesting of awards made in 2010 to senior management were conditional on marketbased 
performance criteria and calculated using the monte carlo model vesting criteria for awards made to senior management from 2011 
onwards are aligned with those awarded to the executive management team the awards made on 9 february 2012 were to senior 
management and based on specific operating performance conditions over a vesting period of two years all awards are nil cost options 
which vest subject to achievement of the relevant performance conditions after three years and can be exercised over the following seven 
years save as permitted in the ltip rules awards lapse on an employee leaving the company
details of performance share awards outstanding during the year are as follows
ltip awards
2013
ltip awards
2012
outstanding at beginning of year 1887156 1612737
granted during year 161044 342688
forfeited during year 58700 38269
exercised during year 217733 30000
outstanding at the end of year 1771767 1887156
exercisable at end of year 966929 739747
of the performance share awards granted during the year 161044 awards were made on 1 november 2012 2012 321888 on 
1 november 2011 and 20800 on 9 february 2012 the aggregate of the fair values of the awards made on 1 november 2012 
is £600348 2012 £1025000
the estimated fair values of the awards are calculated using the monte carlo model with the black scholes model used to calculate 
those with a performance condition based on eps the inputs into the models for awards granted are as follows
grant date
6 and 
17 november
2008
9 november
2009
9 november
2009
2 december
2010
1 november 
2011
9 february
2012
1 november 
2012
weighted average exercise price pence — — — — — — —
expected volatility 24 34 34 37 39 38 33
expected life years 3 4 3 3 3 16 3
expected dividend yield 087 124 124 062 142 158 156
riskfree rate 341 252 203 136 150 039 041
 awards made to senior management based on marketbased performance criteria only
the group recognised a total expense of £257000 2012 £842000 in the year related to performance share awards under the ltip  abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 92
notes to the financial statements continued
for the year ended 30 june 2013
29 retirement benefit schemes
defined contribution schemes
the ukbased employees of the company have the option to be members of a defined contribution pension scheme managed by a third party 
pension provider for each employee who is a member of the scheme the company will contribute a fixed percentage of each employee’s 
salary to the scheme the only obligation of the group with respect to this scheme is to make the specified contributions
employees of the group’s subsidiaries in the us japan china and hong kong are members of statemanaged retirement benefit schemes 
operated by the governments of the us japan china and hong kong respectively depending on location the subsidiaries are required to 
contribute a specified percentage of payroll costs to the retirement benefit schemes to fund the benefits the only obligation of the group 
with respect to the retirement benefit schemes is to make the specified contributions as required by law
the total cost charged to the income statement in respect of these schemes during the year ended 30 june 2013 was £977000 
2012 £949000 as at 30 june 2013 contributions of £84000 2012 £74000 due in respect of the current reporting period had 
not been paid over to the schemes
30 related party transactions
remuneration of key personnel
the remuneration of the emt who are the key management personnel of the group is set out below in aggregate for each of the 
categories specified in ias 24 related party disclosures further information about the remuneration of individual directors is provided 
in the audited part of the directors’ remuneration report
group and company
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
shortterm employee benefits and fees 2056 1842
sharebased payments charge 866 848
2922 2690
directors’ transactions
under a new product development agreement with a laboratory associated with tony kouzarides a nonexecutive director of the company 
who retired 22 october 2012 abcam provided products from its catalogue free of charge with a resale value of £31101 2012 £30363 
and paid £81411 in royalties 2012 £77455 £21466 relating to these royalties was outstanding at the year end 2012 £14074
dividends totalling £1939512 were paid in the year in respect of ordinary shares held by the company’ s executive and nonexecutive directors
company transactions with its subsidiaries
the company provided goods for resale to received dividends from and was charged management fees by its subsidiaries in the current 
and prior years as summarised in the following table
30 june
2013
£000 
30 june
2012
£000
sales of goods 55539 47472
purchase of goods 8549 3326
dividends received 6557 2323
management fees charged 1705 1167
51842 45302
amounts remaining outstanding at the year end can be seen in the company balance sheet
31 income statement for the company
as permitted by section 408 of the companies act 2006 the company has elected not to present its own income statement for the 
year abcam plc reported a profit for the year ended 30 june 2013 of £52524000 2012 £24501000 profit for the year includes 
£13973000 of nondistributable earnings relating to the gain on disposal resulting from an intragroup transfer of a subsidiary 
undertaking see note 15 for further details corporate directory
registered office
330 cambridge science park
milton road
cambridge cb4 0fl 
uk
websites
wwwabcamcom 
wwwabcamplccom
registered number
3509322
company secretary
jeff iliffe
nominated advisor and joint broker
numis securities limited
the london stock exchange building
10 paternoster square
london ec4m 7lt 
uk
joint broker
peel hunt llp
moor house
120 london wall
london ec2y 5et 
uk
solicitor
eversheds llp
1 wood street
london ec2v 7ws 
uk
auditor
deloitte llp
chartered accountants
cambridge 
uk
public relations advisor
buchanan communications limited
107 cheapside
london ec2v 6dn 
uk
banker
national westminster bank plc
king’s parade
cambridge cb2 3pu 
uk
registrar
capita registrars
northern house
woodsome park
fenay bridge
huddersfield hd8 0ga 
uk
shareholder enquiries
any shareholder with enquiries should in the first instance contact 
our registrars capita registrars using the address provided in the 
corporate directory
share price information
london stock exchange alternative investment market aim 
symbol abc
information on the company’s share price is available on the 
abcam investor relations website at wwwabcamplccom
investor relations
330 cambridge science park
milton road
cambridge cb4 0fl 
uk
email corporateabcamcom
tel 44 01223 696000
website wwwabcamplccom
financial calendar
financial year end 30 june 2013
full year results announced 9 september 2013
annual general meeting 8 november 2013
exdividend date for final dividend 6 november 2013
record date for final dividend 8 november 2013
final dividend payment 29 november 2013
shareholder information thank you
abcam plc
330 cambridge science park
cambridge cb4 0fl 
uk 
email corporateabcamcom
phone 44 01223 696000
fax 44 01223 215215
wwwabcamplccom
abcam plc is committed to achieving good environmental practice and this is reflected 
in this annual report which has been printed on cocoon 100 silk this stock is 
comprised of 100 genuine deinked postconsumer waste which is independently 
certified in accordance with the rules of the forest stewardship council
®
 and 
produced at mills with iso 14001 environmental management systems
100
once again we would like to thank our employees 
who are essential to our continued success
their skill and dedication has been invaluable 
in making abcam what it is today
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013


Summary:
 chairman’s statement
we have a strong business model 
which has been bolstered by the 
addition of the rabmab
®
 technology 
i am pleased to report on another 
successful year for abcam
the year to 30 june 2013 was a 
transformational one for abcam in that 
it included the first full year contributions 
from our acquisitions in the 2012 financial 
year of epitomics and ascent scientific 
which contributed to our 249 reported 
revenue growth to £1222m
we have frequently cautioned that we 
expected western markets to remain 
challenging during the year as governments 
address fiscal deficits that was certainly the 
case particularly in the us which represents 
our largest market despite this we achieved 
underlying constant currency revenue growth 
as defined in the ceo review of an estimated 
118 and adjusted operating profit of 
£465m before costs incurred during the 
year of £33m relating to the amortisation 
of the intangible assets arising on acquisitions 
and £04m of oneoff integration costs
the breadth and depth of our online 
catalogue are important business drivers 
and the enhancement of our product ranges 
has continued apace we added a record 
29102 products to our catalogue during 
the year which at 30 june 2013 comprised 
121558 products by volume the main 
contributor to this growth has been our 
oem supplier base but we have also 
exceeded our targets on new product 
additions including rabmabs
®
 from 
our own production facilities
our geographical expansion has also 
continued and we have achieved deeper 
penetration in europe for example through 
the successful switch to inhouse channels 
of revenues that were previously generated 
by epitomics through third party distributors 
in china we have seen the full year effect 
of the benefits from having our bonded 
warehouse facility in beijing
with such an extensive catalogue and 
diverse customer base our website and 
ecommerce capabilities become ever 
more important tools for our business 
and we have continued our ongoing 
programme of investment in these areas
dividends
whilst we continue to look for opportunities 
to increase shareholder value through external 
investments we are committed to sharing 
the benefits of our strong cash flow directly 
with shareholders through the distribution 
of annual dividends our policy is to distribute 
an annual dividend of 40 of adjusted posttax 
profit after adding back costs of acquisition 
and amortisation of acquisitionrelated 
intangibles and one off integration costs 
consequently after an interim dividend 
of 194 pence per share which was paid 
in april 2013 the directors are recommending 
a 170 increase in the final dividend to 
510 pence per share this would make 
an annual total of 704 pence which is 
an increase of 164 on that paid last year 
subject to shareholder approval at the annual 
general meeting agm in november 2013 the 
final dividend will be paid on 29 november 2013 
to shareholders on the register on 
8 november 2013
governance and the board
the composition of our board is kept under 
regular review since it is important that its 
members bring the appropriate skills required 
to improve the company’ s effectiveness and 
performance the board also needs to 
provide clear leadership and demonstrate 
the values for which the company stands
i am pleased to report that the board 
has functioned well in all respects during 
the year it has provided knowledgeable 
and robust challenge and support to the 
executive directors which has helped 
ensure that the company’s business 
strategy is appropriately developed 
and well delivered
there was one change to the board 
early in the financial year when professor 
tony kouzarides a cofounder of the 
company retired at the agm in october 2012 
this was after 14 years of tremendous service 
during which he played a vital contribution 
to abcam’ s success and for which we again 
offer him our sincerest thanks
looking ahead
we have cautioned for several years 
that pressures on research funding levels 
particularly in our western markets are a 
concern and could impact on our growth 
we have also pointed out the strengths 
of our business which help mitigate this 
challenge the success we have achieved 
in our 201213 results demonstrates the 
importance of our commitment to listening 
and responding to our customers’ needs 
and builds on the excellent work done in 
the business since it started 15 years ago 
looking ahead we expect market conditions 
to remain challenging but we remain confident 
that we have the capabilities and plans in 
place for continued success trading since 
the year end has been in line with the 
board’s expectations
abcam’s staff command widespread 
recognition for their knowledge and 
commitment it is a privilege to be part 
of such a team and our thanks go to 
them once again for another great year
mike redmond
chairman
9 september 2013
abcam plc annual report and accounts 2013 10