Baldor Announces 1st Quarter 2001 Dividend and Annual Meeting Record Date

    FORT SMITH, Ark., Feb. 7 Baldor Electric Company
markets, designs, and manufactures electric motors and drives and
is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Baldor's Board of Directors met on
February 5, 2001.  R. S. Boreham, Jr., Baldor's Chairman, today announced the
following:

    1st Quarter 2001 Dividend  ...  The Board of Directors declared a regular
quarterly dividend of $0.13 per share on the Company's common stock.  The cash
dividend is payable on March 30, 2001, to shareholders of record on March 9,
2001.

    Annual Meeting Record Date  ...  The Board established March 14, 2001, as
the record date for voting at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting to be held on
April 28, 2001, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.