Corporate | 21 December 2005 10:27

Ludwig Beck AG: Major shareholder increases stake

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Major shareholder of LUDWIG BECK increases stake in traditional department store located in Munich 25 percent threshold of voting rights exceeded Munich, 20 December 2005: Karl Schleicher, major shareholder of LUDWIG BECK AG, has expanded his share of voting rights in the Munich-based traditional department store. With some 840,000 shares, he now holds slightly more than 25 percent of the company listed in the Prime Standard. The announcement, following Section 25 Article 1 of the Securities Trade Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz), was published in the Handelsblatt newspaper. This represents a clear sign of Mr. Schleicher’s confidence in the future development of the fashion company. The Management Board is also very pleased with this development. “Mr. Schleicher is a long-term shareholder of our company and has demonstrated his close relationship with us over the past few years. We welcome his financial engagement in LUDWIG BECK”, emphasised Dieter Münch, CFO of LUDWIG BECK. Review of a successful year 2005 up to now LUDWIG BECK AG posted a steady revenue growth in the first nine months compared to the previous year. In the third quarter, the gross revenue increase was 0.9 percent higher than in the previous year. As such, LUDWIG BECK managed to generate a revenue trend far above the sector, which saw an average revenue decline of 2 percent over the same period. The strict implementation of the “Trading up” growth strategy, which had been defined in 2004, resulted in the clear trend reversal: The assortment concept this year was again entirely focused on the upscale market, in order to increase the quality of the offering. Pleasing start to Christmas trading The fourth quarter, traditionally strongly impacted by Christmas trading, brings about consistently positive sentiment at the Munich fashion company. The revenue growth in the months of October and November, as well as the revenue trend in December to date, indicates a positive conclusion to the year 2005. Revenues for the full-year 2005 will be published on 4 January 2006, and will be publicly available on the company’s website from that date onwards. Contact Investor Relations: Contact Group Accounting: Buchanan Capital Group Ludwig Beck am Rathauseck Metis-Corinna Tarta Jens Schott +49 (81 51) 9 59 66 – 25 +49 (89) 2 36 91- 798 m.tarta@buchanan-ag.com jens.schott@LudwigBeck.de End of announcement (c)DGAP 21.12.2005 —————————————————————————— WKN: 519990; ISIN: DE0005199905; Index: Listed: Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard) und München; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg und Stuttgart