Baldor Electric Company Announces Shares Repurchased and Upcoming Webcast

    FORT SMITH, Ark., Feb. 14 -- Baldor Electric
Company markets, designs, and manufactures electric motors,
drives, and generators and is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Today Baldor
made the following announcements.
    Shares Repurchased ... The Company repurchased 1.5 million shares at a
discount to market from the Estate of Fred C. Ballman.  No other terms were
disclosed.  John A. McFarland, President and CEO of Baldor, reported, "With
the addition of this purchase, we have now repurchased 5.8 million shares
since 1998.  Our strong balance sheet allows us to make good investments such
as our purchase yesterday of Energy Dynamics, Inc., a manufacturer of
generators, and return money to our shareholders through stock repurchases and
dividends."
    Upcoming Webcast ... Company management will make a presentation at The
Wall Street Analyst Forum's 48th Institutional Investor Conference on Monday,
March 3, 2003, at 10:20 am (EST) in New York City.  Interested parties may
listen to the live presentation from the Company's website at http://www.baldor.com .
An audio archive of the presentation will also be available on the Company's
website for 30 days.
    This document contains statements that are forward-looking, i.e. not
historical facts.  The forward-looking statements (generally identified by
words or phrases indicating a projection or future expectation such as
"outlook", "optimistic", "trends", "expect(s)", "assuming", "expectations",
"forecasted", "estimates", "expected") are based on the Company's current
expectations and some of them are subject to risks and uncertainties.
Accordingly, you are cautioned that any such forward looking statements are
not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and
that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward
looking statements as a result of various factors.  The factors that might
cause such differences include, among others, the following:  (i) changes in
economic conditions, (ii) developments or new initiatives by our competitors
in the markets in which we compete, (iii) fluctuations in the costs of select
raw materials, (iv) the success in increasing sales and maintaining or
improving the operating margins of the Company, and (v) other factors
including those identified in the Company's filings made from time-to-time
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  These statements should be read
in conjunction with the Company's most recent annual report (as well as the
Company's Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission) containing a discussion of the Company's business and of various
factors that may affect it.