Florida's Public Pension Fund Leads Efforts to Achieve $300 Million Class Action Settlement with DaimlerChrysler

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug 22, 2003 -- Florida's public pension fund, the State Board of Administration (SBA), has announced a $300 million settlement from DaimlerChrysler AG -- possibly the largest settlement ever for non-accounting securities fraud litigation.

"The SBA Trustees are very pleased with the settlement, which will help protect the assets of current and future Florida retirees," said Coleman Stipanovich, executive director of the SBA. "On the other hand, we remain concerned by what appears to be persistent scandal and questionable behavior by some corporations and their executives. The SBA will continue to be vigilant in demanding good corporate governance and holding public companies and their leaders accountable to their shareholders."

The SBA was a Lead Plaintiff with several other public pension funds in a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware against DaimlerChrysler AG, Daimler-Benz AG and two of DaimlerChrysler's top executives, including Jurgen Schrempp, chair of the company's Board of Management. The class includes investors who exchanged their Chrysler Corporation shares for DaimlerChrysler shares in connection with the combination of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz, as well as investors who purchased DaimlerChrysler shares over a two-year period following the combination.

The settlement, which includes DaimlerChrysler's denial that it committed any legal violation, ends two-and-a-half years of litigation throughout the U.S. and Europe.

The suit was initiated by the SBA and other pension funds in dispute of "merger of equals" claims made when Daimler-Benz and Chrysler combined the companies in a $36 billion deal in 1998. The SBA and other plaintiffs asserted that by positioning the deal not as an acquisition but as a "merger of equals," Daimler-Benz acted in bad faith and misrepresented the nature of the combination. In an acquisition, Chrysler stock would have yielded a premium price to shareholders.

The SBA was represented in the litigation by Entwistle & Cappucci, LLP and Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A.