Heidelberg Reports Global Economy Weighed Down Fiscal Year Sales

Thanks to its timely restructuring measures, Heidelberg succeeded in achieving an almost break-even operating result (excluding special items) in the fourth quarter despite the falling sales. In addition, Heidelberg was also able to achieve a clearly positive free cash flow totaling 76 million Euro in this difficult economic environment and cut its net debt - which increased for the year as a whole - from 729 million Euro in the previous quarter to 657 million Euro in the fourth quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, inventories were reduced considerably by 177 million Euro to 1.034 billion Euro (inventories at December 31, 2008: 1.211 billion Euro).