Annual General Meeting Of Buderus AG in Wetzlar.

Business Editors

WETZLAR, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2001

2001 financial year off to a strong start

New program for the purchase of own shares

Buderus Group, AG, the Germany-based heating and specialty products group, yesterday announced at its Annual General Meeting that consolidated sales of Buderus Group rose by 8% to Euro 263 million in the first two months of the 2001 financial year.

The result before taxes on income improved to Euro 4 million over the same period. It is possible only to a limited extent to compare this figure to the previous year's result of Euro 3 million as this reporting period follows the shortened financial year which ended on December 31, 2000. The previous year's figures were extracted from the financial statements for the first five months of the 1999/2000 financial year. It is also not possible to interpolate the figures for these two months as they are neither representative nor seasonally weighted.

Forecasts for overall economic development in the 2001 financial year are carefully optimistic despite the risk potential in exports. The three Divisions' target markets, however, display a highly diversified picture.

The domestic construction industry is constantly on the decline. Buderus Guss' areas have a bias towards the construction industry, and therefore must continue to concentrate on generating sales abroad. The necessary infrastructure has already been created.

The Heating Products Division has until now also suffered from weak domestic demand. Growth originated from gaining market shares in Germany and further expansion abroad. The immense need for replacement of boilers in Germany has not yet translated into additional demand. The number of boilers which will be replaced over the short to medium-term is estimated at 1.5 to 1.8 million. With its product line, in particular in the area of energy-efficient products such as condensing boilers and solar collectors, Buderus Heiztechnik is well prepared for a market recovery. The Heating Products Division should be able to continue its good performance in terms of sales and revenue in the year 2001.

Demand from the automotive industry and engineering sector is still on a very high level. The Special Steel Products Division and the respective areas within the Castings Division envisage further sales and revenue growth in these markets. These areas produce at full capacity and the order backlog is on a historical high.

"In the current year, we intend to once more exceed the sales and earnings level achieved in the 1999/2000 financial year," said Dr. Hans-Ulrich Plaul, Chairman of the Management Board.

With regard to the new global authorization for the repurchase of Buderus shares, Dr. Plaul commented, "As a general rule we still think -- as we did with the first program in 1999 -- that buying back our own shares is a promising option for optimising the capital structure." The possibility of using repurchased shares as an acquisition currency is new. Buderus does not have any specific plans to exploit this possibility.

The unabridged version of the speech given at Buderus AG's Annual General Meeting by Dr. Hans-Ulrich Plaul, Chairman of the Board of Management, may be retrieved via the Internet at www.buderus.de.

Information on Buderus, a world leader in heating, specialty steel products and castings is available on Bloomberg under the symbol BUD GR and on Reuters under BUDG.O. Additional information is available on Buderus Group AG's home page: www.buderus.de.