Dürr shareholders agree to increase dividend to euro 1.00

05/31/2000

• Dynamic sales and profit development is expected to last
• Strengthening of future technologies
• Carl Schenck takeover bid: Dürr holds a 93 % stake
• Increase in equity capital base to continue growth trend
• Election of Werner Schmidt, Chairman of LBBW's Managing Board, to be a member of the Supervisory Board
• Commitment to corporate governance principles

The shareholders of the Stuttgart-based Dürr Aktiengesellschaft have approved today a dividend of euro 1.00 per share (previous year: euro 0.92). With a net profit for the year worth euro 16.6 million (previous year: euro 15.2 million), the dividend sum amounts to euro 13.0 million. There is no tax credit for domestic shareholders entitled to a tax deduction, since earnings are mainly influenced by contributions from abroad.

Furthermore the shareholders elected Werner Schmidt, Chairman of the Managing Board of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, to be a new member of the Supervisory Board. Dr. Walther Zügel, member of the board since 1989, and Deputy Chairman since 1997, resigned at the end of the meeting.

In connection with the resolutions passed, the Managing Board has been authorized to issue convertible or warrant bonds totalling a nominal amount of up to euro 100 million and to acquire its own shares. Both cases are reserve resolutions, however, there are no concrete plans to repurchase shares or issue convertible or warrant bonds. Moreover the Managing Board has been authorized to increase the current share capital of euro 33.3 million by euro 16.2 million. This resolution will help to strengthen the equity capital of Dürr AG and thus continue the consistently profit-oriented growth trend of the group.

Dürr are one of the first listed joint-stock corporations to sign a commitment to corporate governance principles. "We herewith commit ourselves to the principles of a responsible company management and control aiming at a long-term value addition for our shareholders", said Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of Dürr AG's Board at the shareholders' meeting held in Stuttgart. With respect to this contribution to consolidate the shareholder culture in Germany, Dürr is guided by the model principles that were worked out and presented by an independent expert commission at the beginning of the year.

With the forthcoming formation of Intec AG as the holding company of a new business unit for future technologies, Dürr will foster the development, use and marketing of innovative solutions in the fields of supervisory controls, sensor technology, optoelectronics and multimedia, thus also consolidating its competitive positions. In accordance with an innovative corporate strategy, Intec will market Dürr's proprietary development projects and at the same time strengthen Dürr's technology portfolio by forming joint ventures or investing in new start-up companies.

Dürr AG made a good start in the first quarter of 2000: As reported earlier, the key figures were notably above last year's figures. In the first quarter, sales reached approximately euro 288 million; incoming orders were worth about euro 344 million, order backlog totalled about euro 808 million. Pretax profits amounted to euro 7.5 million.

Due to an overall good project situation in the automobile industry, Dürr expects the dynamic sales and profit development to continue with predicted sales worth about euro 2 billion for the year 2001. The positive response from customers to last month's majority takeover of Carl Schenck AG, Darmstadt, contributed to this optimistic assessment: "The first major order recently placed by Opel with Dürr and Schenck together for a complete final assembly line shows us that, in terms of strategy, we are following the right path with the extension of our capabilities, and that we will be able to withstand tough competition", says Mr Pötsch, Dürr's Chairman. Because of constant structural changes in the automobile industry, Dürr expects a growing demand for software-based production technologies, turnkey system solutions and services.

Having acquired a 76.4 percent stake in Carl Schenck AG from Harald Quandt Beteiligungsverwaltung as of 3 April 2000, Dürr now plans to completely take over Schenck. For this reason Dürr submitted a purchase offer to external Schenck shareholders for euro 120 per unit share. The offer has met with a very good response: As at 30 May, Dürr held over a 93% stake in Schenck altogether.

The technology group Dürr is a world-leading supplier of production systems and services for the automobile and other industries, Dürr AG being the top strategic management holding company. In 1999 the five worldwide operating business units of Paint Systems, Automotion, Environmental, Protecs and Services achieved sales of over euro1.2 billions, employing approximately 7000 people altogether.