• Bosch has signed agreements with Ventizz to acquire a 50.45 percent stake in ersol Solar Energy AG
• Public takeover offer to purchase all outstanding shares in ersol Solar Energy AG at 101.00 euros per share in cash
• ersol develops, manufactures, and sells wafer-based silicon solar cells and thin-film modules
• ersol Group: 160 million euros sales in 2007, more than 300 million euros sales expected in 2008, currently some 1,000 associates at three locations

Stuttgart – Bosch has signed agreements with the financial investor Ventizz to acquire 50.45 percent of the shares in ersol Solar Energy AG, Erfurt, Germany . The purchase price for these shares amounts to 546.4 million euros, equivalent to a price of 101.00 euros per share. The acquisition of the shareholding is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities. As a result of these agreements, Bosch intends to make a public takeover offer to all other ersol shareholders, in which it will also offer 101.00 euros per share in cash. The offer price will represent a premium of 68 percent based on the weighted average XETRA® and floor-trading share price of the past three months. Apart from Ventizz, further ersol shareholders, whose combined shareholding comes to a total of 3.3 percent, have already signed irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer.

ersol Solar Energy AG develops, manufactures, and sells wafer-based silicon solar cells, and is moving into the manufacture of thin-film modules. The photovoltaics company generated global sales of 160 million euros in 2007. For 2008, ersol expects sales of more than 300 million euros. The company currently employs some 1,000 associates at three locations. With this acquisition, Bosch hopes to extend its business in the area of renewable energies. “As a leading technology and services company offering beneficial products and services, Bosch significantly contributes to protecting the environment and conserving resources. Together with ersol, which is a successful company in the field of photovoltaics, we want to further expand our business in this area. In this enterprise, we will count very much on the know-how and experience of ersol’s management and associates,” said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management.

Bosch is already active in the market with many systems for utilizing renewable energies. With its existing activities in this area, it plans to generate sales of some 750 million euros in 2008. Bosch Rexroth, for example, supplies gear and drive technology for wind turbines, develops efficient drive concepts for the still young sector of marine energy generation, and supplies hydraulic adjusting systems for solar thermal power stations. In addition, Bosch Thermotechnology has become the market leader in the rapidly growing market for electric heat pumps, and is also a leading manufacturer of solar collectors for hot-water generation. In June 2007, Bosch entered into an alliance with the German companies BASF SE ( Ludwigshafen) and Heliatek GmbH ( Dresden) in the promising area of organic photovoltaics. The objective of this alliance is to produce solar cells significantly more cost effectively and at the same time to increase the number of areas where they can be used.

For further information on the planned public takeover offer, see

http://angebot.bosch.com .

About Bosch in China

Bosch founded its first trading office in China as early as 1909. In 1926, the first car service workshop opened in Shanghai. Today, all Bosch business sectors are present in China: Automotive and Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Building Technology. The company operates more than 30 businesses in China and has a holding company in Shanghai. Consolidated sales in China reached 1.8 billion euros in 2007. By the end of 2007, Bosch had invested around 1 billion euros in China, and between 2008 and 2010 it will invest a further 850 million euros. Some 17,000 Bosch associates are committed to bringing to Chinese customers the latest technology as well as the most reliable services to help improve their quality of life.

About the Bosch Group

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. In the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology, more than 270,000 associates generated sales of over 46 billion euros in fiscal 2007. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its more than 300 subsidiary and regional companies in some 50 countries. This worldwide development, manufacturing, and sales network is the foundation for further growth. Bosch spends more than three billion euros each year for research and development, and in 2007 applied for over 3,300 patents worldwide. The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861-1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.”

For more information on Bosch Group, please visit http://www.bosch.com.cn

For further details please contact:

Ms. Helen He Bosch(China) Investment Ltd. Tel: +86-21-2898 1111 Email: helen.he@cn.bosch.com

News sourc: Bosch China
Publish date: June 2008