Dürr Group's business continues positive trend in third quarter of 1998

10/13/1998

• Earnings improved by 23 % compared to previous year
• Group turnover, order intake and orders on hand well above level of previous year

The Dürr Group - the world's leading systems supplier of paint finishing and industrial cleaning equipment - was able to continue the positive trend in the third quarter of 1998 also.

Earnings before taxes rose in the first nine months compared to the value in the previous year by 23 % to 33.2 m DM (previous year 27 m DM), the last quarter of the year being the period with highest earnings in the plant engineering sector due to increased invoicing.

Group turnover went up to 1,160 m DM (1,020 m DM); this is equivalent to an increase by 13.7 %. Order intake reached a total of 1.725 m DM, 2.1 % more than in September 1997 (1,690 m DM). Orders on hand rose to 2,753 m DM, which is equal to a growth rate of 31 % (2,095 m DM).

Expansion of the Automation and Conveyor Systems sector In the period under review operations in the USA in the conveyor and material flow systems sector were substantially expanded with the acquisition of Acco Systems Inc., Warren (MI), from the British FKI Group. Furthermore, a coope-ration agreement was concluded with the Italian company CPM S.p.A., Turin, so this business line can now offer our customers around the world a full-range system for body shops, paint shops and final assembly lines in automobile production plants.

Outlook The economic turmoil in Asia and Russia, and the effect that this has also had on the countries in South America and on the international financial systems have so far had no impact on the development of Dürr's business; a decline in the emerging markets was over-compensated by the positive development in the traditional markets.

The situation is so positive thanks to the high cost-effectiveness of capital investments in modern paint finishing and industrial cleaning systems, and to the long lead times that have to be considered from the concept planning stage to start of production.

Current exchange rate fluctuations have hardly no effect on the development of earnings for Dürr due to the high proportion of equipment and services supplied by local contractors.

As the situation presents itself today, we may say that order intake will again be satisfactory for the Group world-wide in all lines of business this year. We have a very good project situation and a very high volume of orders, and are therefore expecting an increase in turnover and earnings compared to previous years; with respect to earnings the Board of Management is, in fact, expecting an unusually high improvement with reference to turnover development. This will allow us - in so far as this is foreseeable - to propose an increase in dividend to the Supervisory Board.

Hans Dieter PötschChairman of the Board of Management