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Dürr Shareholders' Meeting agrees to a Dividend of 1.20 DM per 5-DM Share

07/03/1997

Dürr starts the first half year with an order boom - improvements in sales and earnings expected for 1997 - the Shareholder's Meeting appoints two new members to the Supervisory Board

As reported by Hans-Dieter Pötsch, Chariman of the Board of Management, at today's Shareholders' meeting of Dürr AG in Stuttgart, the good fringe conditions and Dürr's competitive strength have created incoming orders in the first half year amounting to 1,421 m DM. Compared to last year's figure of 836,4 m DM, this is approximately 60 % more, notably a rise to a record level. These figures include a contract from Daimler Benz in the amount of about 350 m DM, where Dürr was appointed General Contractor for the construction of a new paint shop at the plant in Bremen. Furthermore, a major contract totalling over 260 m DM was received from Audi for the construction of a complete paint shop for the plant in Curitiba/Brazil. We therefore expect incoming orders to increase throughout the whole year 1997, therefore above the high level of 1996.

Due to the good order situation in the core business areas of automotive Paint Finishing and Industrial Cleaning Systems, the return on sales will also be higher than in 1996. The development of sales in the first five months confirms this expectation.

The development of the Group result is also judged positively by Dürr's Board of Management: "The current measures that are being taken to improve the business result in conjunction with the invoicing of major contracts with optimized cost structures will, as far as we can say today, result in a substantial increase in earnings compared to 1996" states Pötsch.

Already in the past business year the Dürr Group achieved rates both of two-digits. Sales (1,640 m DM) and incoming orders (1,786 m DM) each increased by 11 %, orders on hand increased by 13 % (1,425 m DM) compared to last year's figures.

The main market areas were again North America and Europe with 44 % and 43 % return on sales respectively.

The Shareholders' Meeting passed the resolution to pay a dividend of 1.20 DM per 5-DM share. Considering the changeover to 5-DM shares, this dividend is above last year's level. On the basis of a balance sheet profit of 23.4 m DM the total dividend amount remains unchanged at 15.6 m DM. As in the previous year, there is no tax credit for domestic shareholders who are entitled to tax deduction.

The Shareholders' Meeting also decided with a large majority to appoint Jörg Menno Harms, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Böblingen, and Dr. Tessen von Heydebreck, Member of the Board of Directors at Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt-am-Main as Members of the Dürr Supervisory Board. Dr. Rolf-E. Breuer and Professor Dr. Hermann Simon have resigned from office with effect from the end of the Shareholders' Meeting.