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Environmental & Social Information • Mar 14, 2006

News Details

Corporate | 14 March 2006 17:00

ARQUES Industries AG publishes Social Responsibility Report 2005

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— ARQUES Industries AG publishes Social Responsibility Report 2005 Starnberg. March 14, 2006 – The ARQUES Industries Group employed 2,568 staff members world-wide at the end of 2005 (December 31, 2005). Thus the number of employees rose from exactly 1,000 to 2,568 (+157%) compared with the previous year (December 31, 2004). The total amount in wages and salaries rose to almost €70 million. Of the 2,568 employees 2,439 were engaged in Europe and 129 in the rest of the world. 2,258 employees came from EU countries, 181 from other European countries, 72 from Asia and 57 from North America. The staff of the Indian production joint ventures of the SKW Group are not taken into consideration. This spreading confirms the position of ARQUES as a global group with the main emphasis in Europe. In Germany the situation was as follows in the financial year 2005: A total of 1,608 employees were engaged at December 31, 2005, which represents a plus of 105% compared with the year-end 2004 (784 employees). The fact that about 220 jobs were no longer in the group statistics (due to the sale of Louis Schierholz GmbH in the summer of 2005) was already taken into consideration. 471 employees lost their jobs in Germany within the context of required restructuring carried out in the year 2005. In the same time period 203 new employees were hired. 138 apprentices were employed in ARQUES companies, of which 48 successfully concluded their training in 2005. The available positions were all occupied with new apprentices. 7 social compensation plans were negotiated with the workers’ representatives and 8 company wage agreements were concluded. Social insurance contributions payed by the ARQUES Group in Germany amounted to a total of €9.1 million in 2005 of which €4.2 million went to pension insurance and €1.4 million to unemployment insurance. A total of 3 companies in Germany could be salvaged from a threatening and/or existing insolvency. Thereby 496 jobs could be maintained which saved the tax payers tens of millions in unemployment expenditure (not considering insolvency costs). About ARQUES ARQUES Industries AG, Starnberg, is a turnaround specialist who focuses on the acquisition and the active restructuring of companies in transitional situations, in order to develop these, with its own team and own resources, to competitive enterprises with a positive yield. ARQUES revitalises its subsidiaries’ potential for creating value for the benefit of all its stakeholders, taking on the relevant social responsibility. ARQUES has made a duty of identifying underestimated companies with reduced survivability but with high appreciation potential, at the same time mastering complex company structures and transitional situations. The shares of ARQUES Industries AG are traded in the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘AQU’ (ISIN: DE0005156004) and are listed in the SDAX since September 19, 2005. Contact: ARQUES Industries AG Investor Relations & Corporate Communication Anke Lüdemann, CEFA/CIIA Tel.: +49 (0) 8151/ 651 0 Email: luedemann@arques.de (c)DGAP 14.03.2006 ————————————————————————— language: English emitter: ARQUES Industries AG Münchner Str. 15a 82319 Starnberg Deutschland phone: +49 (0)8151 651-0 fax: +49 (0)8151 651- 500 email: info@arques.de WWW: www.arques.de ISIN: DE0005156004 WKN: 515600 indexes: SDAX stockmarkets: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, München, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————