Goodyear Successfully Completes Bank Credit Restructuring, Announces Fourth Quarter 2002 Earnings Release, Conference Call

AKRON, Ohio, April 1 -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company today announced it has successfully completed a comprehensive refinancing and restructuring of its bank credit and accounts receivable facilities.

"These new agreements will provide Goodyear with additional financial flexibility and liquidity," said Robert J. Keegan, president and chief executive officer. "They give us both the time and the opportunity to turn around our North American Tire business."

Goodyear is replacing a total of $2.94 billion in financing with $3.3 billion in credit facilities that include:

  * a $750 million secured U.S. revolving credit facility due in 2005,
  * a $645 million secured U.S. term facility due in 2005,
  * $650 million of secured European facilities due in 2005 and
  * $1.3 billion of secured asset-based facilities due in 2006.

The restructured credit agreements replace facilities that generally had shorter maturities but, with the exception of $763 million in U.S. and Canadian accounts receivable facilities, were unsecured. Certain international accounts receivable securitizations, which the company intends to replace or restructure, remain in place, as do a limited amount of additional foreign committed and uncommitted lines of credit.

Goodyear will file Form 12b-25, "Notification of Late Filing," as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission today in connection with the delay in the filing of its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2002.

The company plans to report fourth quarter 2002 financial results at 8:30 a.m. EST Thursday, April 3, to be followed by an investor conference call at 10 a.m. The company also intends to file its Form 10-K on April 3. Prior to the commencement of the call, Goodyear will post the financial and other statistical information that will be presented, on its investor relations Web site: www.goodyear.com/investor .

Participating in the conference call with Keegan will be Robert W. Tieken, executive vice president and chief financial officer. They will review Goodyear's fourth quarter results and the new bank credit agreements.

Shareholders, members of the media, and other interested persons may access the conference call on the Web site or via telephone by calling (706) 634-5954 before 9:55 a.m. April 3. A taped replay of the conference call will be available at 2 p.m. April 3 by calling (706) 645-9291 and entering access code 9550124. The call replay will also remain available on the Web site.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries around the world. Goodyear employs about 92,000 people worldwide.

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward- looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various economic, financial and industry factors including without limitation the company's ability to implement its cost-cutting plans and achieve its sales targets. Additional factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward looking statements are discussed in the company's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2001 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2002, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our estimates only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.