04/05/2006 -- On March 31, 2006 the Management Board of Heidelberg decided to withdraw 2,857,777 no-par bearer shares (3.3 percent of outstanding shares) by means of a simplified capital retirement process in compliance with the Stock Corporation Act, Section 71 para. 1 no. 8 sentence 6. The Management Board was authorized accordingly by the Annual General Meeting of July 20, 2005. The Supervisory Board already agreed to this measure during its board meeting on March 29, 2006. The company's capital stock now amounts to 212,609,799.68 Euro and is divided into 83,050,703 no-par bearer shares. The current share buyback program will be continued unchanged up to a level of five percent. The shares purchased in this context will in part be used for employee share participation programs and/or for a further capital retirement.