Mortsel (Belgium), 15 March 2001 - The Agfa-Gevaert Group, Mortsel/Belgium, is - as the figures for 2000 clearly show - still very much on course for success. With an increase in sales of 11 percent to 5.260 billion euros (previous year: 4.731 billion euros), the Group's EBIT (operating result before restructuring and non-recurring expenses/income) improved by 45 percent to 527 million euros (previous year: 364 million euros). The return on sales rose from 7.7 percent to 10.0 percent. As scheduled, considerable restructuring measures were again implemented in 2000. With a net expense of 126 million euros (previous year: 273 million euros), earnings after restructuring amounted to 401 million euros (previous year: 91 million euros). The Group's net result was 169 million euros (previous year: 14 million euros). "We clearly exceeded our targets for the year 2000", said the Group's President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Klaus Seeger. Among the targets were for Group sales to cross the 5 billion euros mark, to achieve an EBIT of 500 million euros, and to post double-digit growth in the net result compared to the reference year of 1998. In that year, the figure was 140 million euros, and in 2000 it was exceeded by 21 percent. Another of Agfa's targets was to achieve "Profitable growth", a target that was reached convincingly - and not only in 2000. In fact, a look at the development over the last four years shows that the company has increased its sales by 1.5 billion euros since 1996 (up 40 percent), and also succeeded in improving its EBIT by 101 percent. Earnings have thus risen more than twice as fast as sales. The growth engine is still the so-called "New digital solutions". Here, sales rose in 2000 by 61 percent to 1.146 billion euros. The target was 1 billion euros. By "New digital solutions" Agfa means the future-oriented system solutions from all the business segments. In fact, 22 percent of Group sales now come from this sector, while only two years ago the figure was just 12 percent. Agfa's excellent position in these future markets is underscored by the fact that Agfa is nearly always number one or number two on the world market.