Dürr confirms dividend target

05/18/2007

Stuttgart, May 18, 2007 – At today’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting of Dürr AG, CEO Ralf Dieter presented the annual financial statements for 2006 and the company’s targets. Core messages were the achievement of all the company’s targets in the past fiscal year and the optimistic outlook for 2007. Despite a strong improvement in earnings, the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting resolved to strengthen the capital base and not to pay a dividend for 2006. The main reasons were the still slightly negative operating cash flow in 2006 and Dürr AG’s only small unappropriated profit. However, CEO Ralf Dieter underlined the company’s intention to resume a dividend payment in the coming year.

Dieter confirmed the target of a further strong earnings improvement in 2007. In addition, Dürr aims to achieve a clearly positive cash flow: “We want to generate free cash so that we can invest, continue on our innovation path and pay a dividend to our shareholders again,” Dieter announced to the over 350 shareholders present. Ralph Heuwing, who took over as CFO on May 14, 2007, introduced himself to the shareholders.

The Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, which was held for the first time at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, ratified the acts of the members of the Board of Management by a majority of 99.99% and the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board by a majority of 99.97% of the votes. Ernst & Young AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft were re-appointed as auditors for the 2007 fiscal year. The Annual Shareholders’ Meeting also adopted all the other items on the agenda by a large majority.

Dürr has got off to a good start in 2007. In the first quarter incoming orders were up 20% year on year to € 508.3 million. The operating result (EBIT before one-time expenses) improved to € 3.1 million after a loss of € -0.9 million still in the first quarter of 2006.

Further documentation on the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting of Dürr AG is available at www.durr.com. 

The Dürr Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of products, systems, and services for automobile manufacturing. Its range embraces important stages in the vehicle production process. As a systems supplier, Dürr designs and builds paint shops and final assembly plants. Dürr also supplies cleaning and filtration equipment used in the production of engine and transmission components as well as balancing and diagnostic systems for vehicle components. Business with automobile manufacturers and their suppliers accounts for about 90% of consolidated sales. Other important customer groups are the mechanical engineering sector and the chemical, pharmaceutical, coating, and aviation industries.