Actuant Corporation To Adopt FAS No. 142 in Fiscal 2002, Reaffirms Q4 Guidance

    MILWAUKEE--Sept. 11, 2001--Actuant Corporation announced today that it adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, "Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets" in September 2001, the beginning of its 2002 fiscal year. The new standard requires companies to cease all amortization of goodwill and perform annual impairment testing on the goodwill balances. Actuant has other intangible assets, consisting primarily of patents acquired in purchase transactions, which will continue to be amortized.
    The adoption of this Standard is expected to result in an increase in fiscal 2002 net income of approximately $3.2 million, or approximately $0.38 per diluted share. Of this increase, $1.1 million relates to the Tools & Supplies segment and $2.1 million relates to the Engineered Solutions segment. The effective tax rate will decrease to approximately 36-37% from the previously planned fiscal 2002 effective tax rate of 38-39%.
    Separately, the Company indicated that it was comfortable with its prior guidance for fiscal 2001 fourth quarter results, which was sales of $116-$121 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") of $20 to $23 million.

    Actuant, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a diversified industrial company with operations in 15 countries. The Actuant businesses are market leaders in highly engineered position and motion control systems and branded hydraulic and electrical tools. Products are offered under such established brand names as Enerpac, Gardner Bender, Milwaukee Cylinder, Nielsen Sessions, Power-Packer and Power Gear.
    For further information on Actuant and its business units, visit the Company's website at www.actuant.com.

    Safe Harbor Statement

    Certain of the above comments represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management cautions that these are based on current estimates of future performance and are highly dependent upon a variety of factors, which could cause actual results to differ from these estimates. Actuant's results are also subject to general economic conditions, customer demand in the specific markets the Company serves, continued market acceptance of the Company's new product introductions, successful integration of acquisitions, operating margin risk due to competitive pricing, foreign currency fluctuations and interest rate risk. See the Company's fiscal 2000 Form 10-K for further information regarding risk factors.