[Leica] Leica's Fiscal Year End: Looking Good

[Larry Kopitnik <kopitnil@marketingcomm.com>]

In a press release dated this past Monday, and downloadable as a pdf
document from Leica's web site at
http://www.leica-camera.com/untern/ir/pdf/pm_030400_e.pdf , Leica says they
had a 3% increase in sales in the fiscal year ending on March 31, and "a
positive net result." That following last year's DM 13.7 million loss.

They also say they are making capital expenditures to increase their
production capacity of aspherical lenses, to sell those lenses to other
industrial businesses. Specifically, they say they already have requests in
"two-digit millions amounts" for lenses for use in laser systems, endoscopy
and lithography.

And they announce the addition of Raelf Coenen to the Supervisory Board,
overseeing Engineering and Logistics, noting that since 1996 he has been
the Head of Photo and Film Lenses business division of Carl Zeiss Group.

Larry