Annual General Meeting approves all agenda items

Possibility of dividend for current financial year announced

Düsseldorf, 26 June, 2007 – The shareholders attending today’s Annual General Meeting of the Essanelle Hair Group approved all items on the agenda with large majorities. The comments made by the Management Board concerning the continuation of the company’s growth strategy also received clear support in the contributions made by shareholders. This was the case not only for the further expansion of the salon concepts, but also for the announcement by the Management Board that it would be proposing a dividend to the next Annual General Meeting subject to the company meeting its budget targets for 2007 and the Supervisory Board consenting.

“We have succeeded in gradually improving our earnings situation in the past years, so that we are now able to consider distributing earnings directly to our shareholders,” commented Uwe Grimminger, Chairman of the company’s Management Board. “Our liquidity and financing strength are in such a positive state that we will also be able to maintain our high rate of growth.” The Management Board underlined that, as in previous years, the company would be focusing its future investments on the HairExpress, TOP TEN and Super Cut concepts. Moreover, the Beauty Hair Shop concept was also to be expanded further in order to generate additional product sales. The aforementioned concepts already contributed around Euro 44 million to the company’s sales in 2006. By comparison, the equivalent figure for 2002 was still around Euro 23 million.

The company has also performed very positively in the current financial year to date. Sales improved by around 6.3% in the first quarter, with operating earnings (EBITDA) rising by around 28.1%. “Even if we do not succeed in maintaining the level of earnings seen in the first quarter for the financial year as a whole, this pleasing start and our performance into June show that we will certainly reach our targets of achieving further sales and earnings growth,” remarked company CFO Achim Mansen. “A constant earnings performance already allows us to see the payment of a dividend as representing a realistic option.”

Kontakt:
Haubrok Investor Relations
Michael Müller
+49-21 56-49 65 195
M.Mueller@haubrok.de