Mannheim, February 26, 2003. In the 1st quarter of fiscal year 2002/03 (1/10-31/12/2002), MVV Energie AG again had significant growth in sales and in all other key indicators compared to the same quarter last year. Sales rose by Euro 64 million (+ 15 %) to Euro 483 million. This healthy growth in sales primarily resulted from initial consolidation of new participations and from success in acquiring new customers for our interregional electric power business.

The following indicators include the accounting profit from the sale of our shares in Gasversorgung Süddeutschland GmbH (GVS): Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and goodwill amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to Euro 219 million; earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortisation (EBITA) were Euro 191 million; earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached Euro 188 million; and earnings before taxes (EBT) were Euro 173 million. Net earnings after taxes for this period totalled Euro 161 million, while net earnings after taxes for this period after deducting minority interests came to Euro 157 million. Earnings per share in accordance with IAS rose to Euro 3.09 Euro.

A comparison with the same quarter last year for the key indicators shown above has been affected to a large extent by the proceeds from the sale of GVS shares. In order to permit a proper comparison, the figures both from the quarter reported here and for the same quarter last year will be adjusted for all of the proceeds from the GVS. According to these figures, all of the indicators have shown substantial increases: EBITDA amounted to Euro 77 million (+ 54 %), EBITA was Euro 50 million (+ 67 %), EBIT totalled Euro 46 million (+ 64 %), EBT was Euro 32 million (+ 60 %), net earnings after taxes for this period were Euro 19 million (+ 46 %), and net earnings after taxes for this period after deducting minority interests reached Euro 15 million (+ 50 %).

These positive developments in earnings stemmed from contributions from new participations as well as from higher results from our electric power and gas busi-ness. For all of fiscal year 2002/03, we are expecting sales to increase to at least Euro 2.0 billion. EBIT will be largely marked by the sale of our participation in GVS. From this sale, we expect a profit of approx. Euro 140 million, which will be used to finance additional participations in municipal public utilities and value-added serv-ices providers, to expand our position in renewable energy, for multi-utility projects both in Germany and abroad as well as for measures to strengthen the competitive edge of the MVV Energie Group.

To facilitate a comparison of developments in earnings without the one-off factor from the sale of our GVS shares, the accounting profit from the GVS sale in the current fiscal year as well as the net income from GVS as a participation last year should not be factored in to the key earnings indicators. On this basis, MVV Energie AG still expects a 5 % increase in EBIT for fiscal year 2002/03.

Contact:
MVV Energie AG
Investor Relations
Luisenring 49
68159 Mannheim,
Tel.:++49(0)621-290-3708
E-Mail: ir@mvv.de