Sale of EX-CELL-O

On December 29, 2005, the IWKA Group sold the EX-CELL-O Group ofcompanies, consisting primarily of Ex-Cell-O GmbH, Eislingen, Germany, Ex-Cell-O Machine Tools, Inc., USA and Ex-Cell-O Machines S.A.S., France, to MAXCORInc., New York, effective December 31, 2005/January 1, 2006. The deal is subjectto approval by the relevant antitrust authorities.

A book loss of about EUR 55 million will be charged against the IWKA Group'searnings from discontinued operations in 2005 as a result of this divestiture. TheEX-CELL-O Group's operating losses of about EUR 40 million will be in addition tothe aforementioned charge.

In addition, one-time expenses resulting from the Continuing Operations of aroundEUR 40 million will be charged against the IWKA Group's consolidated EBIT for2005. These relate to structural improvements to the Automotive Technology,Packaging Technology and Robot Technology Divisions. The one-time expenseswill make the otherwise positive IWKA Group consolidated EBIT from theContinuing Operations negative.

The Executive Board is planning significant growth in cash flow and earnings asearly as 2006 because of the sale of the non-core companies and the previouslyintroduced optimizations in the Continuing Operations.

Karlsruhe, December 29, 2005
The Executive Board