(Ad-hoc) First half of 2003 - Dürr's incoming orders up substantially

08/20/2003 - Dürr AG - WKN 556520 / ISIN DE0005565204

The Dürr Group's incoming orders for the first half of 2003 climbed to EUR 1,513.0 m (first half of 2002: EUR 1,172.7 m, +29.0%). Sales increased to EUR 921.9 m (EUR 877.0 m, +5.1%). Orders on hand rose to EUR 1,956.1 m (EUR 1,462.6 m). Calculated at the exchange rates from the same period last year, incoming orders would have been roughly EUR 209 m more, and sales approximately EUR 80 m more. The incoming orders and orders on hand were not uniformly distributed throughout the Group. Consequently capacity is utilized to a highly variable degree in the individual product lines and regions. In comparison to the systems business, the product business, with its shorter turnaround times, was sluggish.

Pretax income for the second quarter of 2003, at EUR 0.5 m, was better than in the first quarter (EUR minus 5.4 m). Pretax income for the first half of 2003 was EUR minus 4.9 m. This represents an improvement of EUR 10.7 m from the previous year's period, which was dominated by restructuring charges. But the figure for the first half of 2003 was still pulled down by pressure on margins and sluggish product business. Additionally, the earnings for the first six months of 2003 include one-time charges for capacity adjustments and structural revisions. EBITDA was EUR 23.4 m (EUR 21.9 m, Q1 2003: 9.1 m, Q2 2003: 14.3 m), Group net income was EUR minus 2.5 m (EUR minus 7.9 m), and loss per share was EUR minus 0.18 (EUR minus 0.55). To strengthen its profitability, Dürr is pursuing the SPRINT SQUARED earnings enhancement program.

As of June 30, 2003, the Dürr Group had a total of 12,918 employees (12,577). While new projects boosted staff in the Services business unit to 4,470 (3,975), staff in the Group's engineering units was down 154, to 8,448.

No consistent recovery of the world economy is expected in the second half of 2003. Dürr assumes that the automotive industry will still be spending conservatively. Amid this setting, the Board of Management has increasingly come to view the goal of stabilizing the sales and earnings situation during 2003, which it announced this spring, as rather ambitious. The primary factor in achieving this goal will be the performance of the product business.

Dürr AG
The executive board

End of disclosure