Meeting of the Board of Directors of Rieter Holding Ltd., Winterthur, decided to propose Roland W. Hess for election to the board at the Annual General Meeting on May 8, 2008. It is planned to elect him chairman of that body in succession to Kurt Feller, who will retire from the Board of Directors at the 2008 Annual General Meeting upon reaching retirement age as stipulated in the Articles of Association. Kurt Feller (1937) joined Rieter in 1978 and was CEO of the Rieter Group from 1989 to 2000. He has been a Director since 1994 and was elected Chairman in 2000. The Board of Directors and the Group Executive Committee wish to thank Kurt Feller for his many years of successful service to Rieter.

Roland Hess, born in Lucerne in 1951, gained a degree in economics and business administration and has many years of international experience in various leading positions. He worked in the finance department at Nestlé for more than 10 years and has been employed by Schindler since 1984, including 8 years in the US, finally as head of the Schindler subsidiary there. He was appointed to the Schindler Executive Board as CFO in 1996 and was CEO of Schindler from 2003 to 2007.

As already announced, it will also be proposed to the Annual General Meeting on May 8, 2008, that Erwin Stoller, who was a member of the Group Executive Committee until the end of 2007, be elected a member of the Board of Directors of Rieter Holding Ltd. Erwin Stoller is nominated as Vice-chairman.

The Rieter Group operates internationally, developing and producing sophisticated systems solutions for the textile and automotive industries. Rieter operates some 70 manufacturing facilities in 20 countries and has some 15 000 employees worldwide.