City of Bydgoszcz buys back shares in municipal company - Withdrawal from Polish market due to be completed by end of financial year

As announced, the Mannheim-based energy company MVV Energie will successfully complete its withdrawal from the Polish market by the end of the current financial year at the end of September. "Due to a difficult and changing business framework, the Polish market, unlike other East European markets such as the Czech Republic, has not developed as positively as we had hoped", underlined Executive Board member Matthias Brückmann, who is also responsible for the Group's international shareholdings, in Mannheim on Thursday.

As a first step, the City of Bydgoszcz has at its own request now bought back the shares acquired by MVV Energie in the municipal district heating company KPEC in 2001. The Mannheim energy company, which in recent years has become the fifth-largest district heating supplier in Europe and is now one of the market leaders in the Czech Republic, generated revenues of PLN 70 million on the sale - equivalent to around EUR 20 million - compared with an acquisition price of PLN 56 million in 2001.

Mannheim, 5 June 2008