Stmnt re Gensel

Genus PLC
11 October 2001



                                                                11 October 2001

                                   Genus plc


Over the last two years Genus plc, the world's largest cattle breeding
company, has invested £1.8m in Gensel, the Canadian publicly quoted
biotechnology company, and now owns 23% of its stock.  The investment was made
in return for commercialisation rights in cattle to the patented technology in
semen sexing Gensel had begun developing. The Genus investment has been used
by Gensel to fund the research programme aimed at developing the technology.

Genus announced on 23rd August 2001 its intention to make provisions against
this investment in its interim accounts for the half year ending 30th
September 2001 following a sharp fall in Gensel's share price over the last
few months and this investment has now been written off.

Gensel has just announced its intention to close operations following the
failure of a fund raising in Canada and the USA, citing the currently poor
market sentiment for technological investment as the reason for the forced
closure.  Having already invested a considerable sum in Gensel, the Board of
Genus made the  decision not to invest further in the business.

The closure of Gensel's operations means that the research programme, which
has been running for nearly four years, will cease at the end of October.
This will be before the technology has been developed into a commercially
viable product.

Gensel's prime business objective was the development of its patented
technology for sexing semen in bulk quantities which is still in the research
stage.  Although a competitive technology is available for performing the
separation of small quantities of semen, this can handle only thousands of
doses of semen per year whereas Genus sells more than eight million doses of
semen per year.

Genus recognises the commercial importance of developing semen sexing
technology and will be searching for another route for handling bulk
quantities.



For further information:

Genus                                      Tel:  + 44 (0)1270 536 500
Richard Wood, Chief Executive
Philip Acton, Finance Director

Buchanan Communications                    Tel:  + 44 (0)20 7466 5000
Charles Ryland
Catherine Miles