Ad-hoc | 1 April 2004 11:24

Rational AG presents the world’s first SelfCooking Center(R)

Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Rational AG presents the world’s first SelfCooking Center(R) Landsberg am Lech, 01.04.04. RATIONAL AG (ISIN: DE0007010803, WKN 701080), the international market leader in combi-steamer technology, presents a ground- breaking innovation for professional kitchens, in the shape of the world’s first SelfCooking Center(R) – the dawn of a completely new era in cooking. Just press a button to select the type of food (meat, poultry, fish, bakery products or vegetables) and set the desired result – that’s all there is to it! Traditional settings such as temperature, time and humidity, or complex programming, constant checks and a host of routine tasks are all things of the past. Perfect, consistent results every time – and food can be cooked overnight if need to be. RATIONAL is the company for chefs, and for more than 30 years has boasted the largest development team in the marketplace, comprising chefs, nutritionists, physicists and engineers. This unique combination of experience of cooking around the world and modern engineering skills has proved ideal for the development of the new RATIONAL SelfCooking Center (R). Even semi-skilled users can operate the SelfCooking Center(R) easily. This is a crucial competitive advantage not only in Europe but above all in the Americas and Asia, the strategic markets of the future. This ground-breaking innovation extends RATIONAL’s technology lead even further. The company anticipates double-digit growth in sales and earnings for 2004. Contact: RATIONAL Aktiengesellschaft Erich Baumgärtner Tel. (08191) 327-420, Fax (08191) 327-272 E-mail: e.baumgaertner@rational-online.de In millions of euros Budget 2004 FY 2003 Sales 205.0 186.6 EBIT 47.0 42.3 Earnings 29.9 26.8 EPS (in euros) 2.63 2.36 end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 01.04.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 701080; ISIN: DE0007010803; Index: SDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf und Stuttgart 011124 Apr 04