Corporate | 28 March 2006 15:28

ARQUES subsidiary, ARQUANA, buys J.P. Bachem printing office in Cologne

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— ARQUES subsidiary, ARQUANA, buys J.P. Bachem printing office in Cologne Third ARQUES Group acquisition in first quarter 2006 Starnberg, March 28, 2006 – Die Starnberg-based equity investment company, ARQUES Industries AG (ISIN DE0005156004), announces the acquisition of the Cologne-based printing office J.P. Bachem GmbH & Co. KG, by its printing subsidiary, ARQUANA International Print & Media AG (ISIN DE0006781008), retroactively as of January 1, 2006. Through the acquisition, the annualised annual turnover of the ARQUANA and ARQUES printing interests have risen to €180 million. In addition, ARQUANA could extend its product portfolio and substantially strengthen its position as one of the leading German printing specialists within the web offset printing segment. Bachem is already the third ARQUES acquisition in the first quarter of 2006. The annualised group turnover could thereby increase by almost 15%, or €85 million, in 2006. In February 2006 Heinrich Heiland GmbH was taken over. The Swiss custom chemicals specialist, Rohner AG, belongs to the ARQUES Group since March 2006. The ARQUES Executive Board is confident to announce further transactions in March. The printing office J.P. Bachem, with nearly 200 years of tradition, operates profitably and is one of the largest sheet-fed and web offset printers in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2005 Bachem achieved a turnover to the value of €30 million with a staff compliment of approximately 170. The printing office, as sales and production location, is of major regional strategic significance to ARQUANA in terms of developing the western areas of the Federal Republic. The parties agreed to maintain silence about the purchase price which consists of cash and share components, and about the contractual details. Although the contract contains deference conditions, both parties assume that the closing will be announced within four weeks. In addition, ARQUANA and the J.P. Bachem publishing company agreed on far-reaching strategic cooperation. Further information regarding ARQUANA and Bachem is available under www.arquana.com. About ARQUES ARQUES Industries AG, Starnberg, (www.arques.de) is a turnaround specialist who focuses on the acquisition and the active restructuring of companies in transitional situations, in order to develop these, with its own team and own resources, to competitive enterprises with a positive yield. ARQUES revitalises its subsidiaries’ potential for creating value for the benefit of all its stakeholders, taking on the relevant social responsibility. ARQUES has made a duty of identifying underestimated companies with reduced survivability but with high appreciation potential, at the same time mastering complex company structures and transitional situations. The shares of ARQUES Industries AG are traded in the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘AQU’ (ISIN: DE0005156004) and are listed in the SDAX since September 19, 2005. Contact: ARQUES Industries AG Investor Relations & Corporate Communication Anke Lüdemann, CEFA/CIIA Tel.: +49 (0) 8151/ 651 0 Email: luedemann@arques.de (c)DGAP 28.03.2006 ————————————————————————— language: English emitter: ARQUES Industries AG Münchner Str. 15a 82319 Starnberg Deutschland phone: +49 (0)8151 651-0 fax: +49 (0)8151 651- 500 email: info@arques.de WWW: www.arques.de ISIN: DE0005156004 WKN: 515600 indexes: SDAX stockmarkets: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, München, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————