Press release from the Annual General Meeting of Hexagon

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF HEXAGON The annual general meeting of Hexagon which was held today on 3 May 1999 in Stockholm was attended by roughly 200 participants. At the meeting, the customary matters were dealt with, including the disposition of the earnings from 1998 and the election of Members of the Board of Directors. Dividend The annual general meeting decided to approve dividend to SEK 5.00 (5.00) per share, which is in agreement with Hexagon´s dividend policy. The dividend constitutes 36% (26) of the earnings per share after full tax and 5.1% (5.5) of the Group´s adjusted shareholders´ equity. As recordal day for the dividend, 6 May 1999 was approved, and it is expected that dividend will be paid on 14 May 1999. Election of Board of Directors Board Members Maths O Sundqvist, Börje Andersson, Hans Nergårdh and Sven Ohlsson were re-elected. Melker Schörling and Carl-Henric Svanberg were elected as new Board Members. President Börje Andersson´s address to the Meeting (abstract) Börje Andersson began by ascertaining that, over the last five year period, the Hexagon Group had increased its earnings from MSEK 129 to MSEK 313 and that invoicing had risen from SEK 1.6 billion in 1994 to close on SEK 5.0 billion in 1998. The earnings outcome for 1998 rose by 3% from MSEK 304 to MSEK 313, excluding the capital gains item of MSEK 84 which arose in connection with the Stock Exchange listing of Svedbergs in 1997. The earnings outcome for the first quarter of 1999 amounted to MSEK 58 (63). The slowdown in the economy as well as the inflow of orders which made their presence felt towards the end of 1998 has continued and negatively affected invoicing. In conclusion, Mr. Andersson made the following forecast for the whole of 1999: "Against the background of the weak inflow of orders and the prevailing economic climate of the first quarter, earnings for 1999 are assessed as amounting to a considerable shortfall in comparison with last year." HEXAGON AB (publ) ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/03/19990503BIT00680/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/03/19990503BIT00680/bit0002.pdf