Corporate | 20 July 2004 16:01

Farewell to Krones’ preference shares

Corporate-news announcement sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– 20 years after the initial public offering, the preference shares will be converted into Krones ordinary shares with effect from 22 July With the conversion of the Krones preference shares into ordinary shares, as approved at the AGM of Krones AG on 23 June 2004, the preference shares being traded on the MDAX at the stock exchanges in Frankfurt am Main and in Munich will no longer be listed after 21 July 2004. Only Krones ordinary shares will be available as from 22 July 2004. Owners of preference shares do not have to take any action in regard to the share conversion. After the market closes on 21 July 2004, the depositary banks will rebook the holdings of Krones preference shares at a ratio of 1 to 1: for each preference share, an ordinary share will be booked into the stockholders’ securities accounts. This conversion procedure for their portfolios is free of charge for the stockholders. Following conversion of the preference shares, 46 per cent of the ordinary shares, and thus of the votes, are in widely diversified ownership. Due to the greater number of freely traded shares, Krones is increasing its market capitalisation, thus achieving concomitantly heightened attention from the financial market and the analysts. At the same time, the world’s market leader for beverage bottling/canning lines and packaging machinery has upgraded the attractiveness of what are now voting shares for institutional and particularly foreign investors. end of message, (c)DGAP 20.07.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 633503; ISIN: DE0006335037; Index: MDAX Listed: Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard) und München; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg und Stuttgart 201601 Jul 04