Lenzing Group continues its successful course

Altogether, the sales achieved during the first nine months of fiscal 2002 were increased by 2.7% over the same period last year and amounted to EUR 466.9 mill. It became possible to improve the EBITDA to EUR 91.2 mill., which corresponds to a plus of 25%. The income from opera-tions (EBIT) was expanded by 37% and amounted to EUR 60.3 mill. The income before taxes and minority interest (EBT) rose by 32% to EUR 56.0 mill.

"This more than proportionate improvement in our result was achieved by a further improvement in our product mix and a higher productivity, in connection with favorable raw material prices" comments the Managing Board on the period under review. In this connection, Lenzing suc-ceeded in remaining largely unaffected by the difficult cyclical environment. The fiber business, in particular, developed excellently. All production lines worked at full capacity.

Upward trend for special fibers

The sale of Lenzing Fibers developed positively in all regions. In Europe, Lenzing benefited from the continuously strong demand for nonwovens fibers. In addition, the upward trend regard-ing Modal, one of Lenzing's fiber specilities, also continued uninterrupted. For the first nine months of the business year, sales were 39% above the figure achieved for the same period last year. In Asia, in particular, the sale of Lenzing's special fibers grew vigorously during the past three quarters.

The development of business activities with Lenzing Lyocell at the Heiligenkreuz site in Bur-genland, Austria was also very positive. Production lines operated at full capacity, and it became possible to further expand production by applying optimizing measures. Especially in the textile area, it became possible to increase sales considerably.

"In the first eight months of 2002 alone, the textile segment made more deliveries than during all of 2001", Franz Raninger, Managing Board Member with fiber reponsibilities, reports about the positive development of Lenzing Lyocell.

At Lenzing and Heiligenkreuz, the two fiber production sites in Austria, work on expanding ca-pacity has already begun. As was reported before, capacities at Lenzing will be expanded to about 200,000 tonnes per year by the end of 2003, at Heiligenkreuz they will be doubled to about 40,000 tonnes.

South Pacific Viscose and Lenzing Fibers Corporation

South Pacific Viscose, the Indonesian associate, developed very satisfactorily during the third quarter and succeeded in generating a good result for the first nine months. Lenzing Fibers Cor-poration, the USA minority share, achieved a slightly positive result for the third quarter.

Engineering and Systems Construction, Plastics and Paper continue to generate good results

The sectors engineering and systems construction, plastics and paper all showed quite a positive development of their sales and produced good contributions to the result, in spite of an increas-ingly difficult market environment. For Lenzing Technik, the engineering and systems construc-tion-company, the number of incoming orders was satisfactory, despite the tight market situation. Lenzing Plastics succeeded in nearly reaching the planned objectives, although industrial business activities continued to be slack, which progressively affected all sales segments. The PTFE busi-ness, however, which had expanded very positively until recently, has shown a clearly downward trend since the summer months. The utilization of capacities at Lenzing Paper developed satisfac-torily, with raw material prices moving up slightly. For the fields envelope and copying paper varieties, sales were clearly above last year's level.

Positive outlook in spite of an uncertain market and cyclical situation

In the coming months, the market for fibers will become increasingly difficult. In Asia stocks of yarn are accumulating, and in Europe the demand for textile fibers is slowing down. As the gen-eral cyclical situation continues to be weak, hardly any positive impulses can be expected. Never-theless, Peter Untersperger, Managing Board Member for Finances, expects a very positive result for fiscal 2002: "The demand for Lenzing fibers will continue to be strong, on account of our successful strategy with fiber specialties. For the sectors engineering and systems construction, plastics and paper, we expect to have satisfactory contributions to our result."

Important Key Data, acc. to US-GAAP, on a Group basis (in EUR mill.)

	1-9/2002	1-9/2001	7-9/2002	7-9/2001
Sales	466.9	454.5	155.9	153.3
EBITDA	91.2	72.9	31.0	24.4
EBIT	60.3	44.0	20.8	14.6
Income before taxes and minority interest(EBT)	56.0	42.4	21.0	13.6
Net income	36.5	21.1	13.4	6.9