Baldor Electric Company Announces Annual Shareholders' Meeting Highlights, Stock Repurchase, and 2nd Quarter 2006 Dividend

FORT SMITH, Ark., April 24 -- Baldor Electric Company markets, designs, and manufactures industrial electric motors, drives, and generators and is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Today Baldor made the following announcements.

Annual Shareholders' Meeting Highlights ... The Company's Annual Shareholders' Meeting was held on April 22, 2006, in Fort Smith and attended by over 300 shareholders and guests. Following are the highlights of the meeting.

   * Company directors Merlin J. Augustine, Jr., John A. McFarland and
     Robert L. Proost were re-elected, each to serve a three-year term to
     expire in 2009.

   * Shareholders adopted the Baldor Electric Company 2006 Equity Incentive
     Plan.

   * At the meeting, presentations were made by John A. McFarland, Chairman
     and CEO, Ronald E. Tucker, President, CFO and Secretary and Mark L.
     Shackelford, Director of Information Services.  The presentations can
     be viewed on the Company's website and a printed copy will be available
     soon.

Cash Dividend ... The Board of Directors declared a 6% increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend. This makes the 10th increase in the last 10 years. The cash dividend of $0.17 per share on the Company's common stock is payable on June 30, 2006, to shareholders of record on June 9, 2006.

Shares Repurchased ... The Company repurchased 1,013,506 shares from the estate of R.S. Boreham, Jr., former Chairman and Director of the Company, at a price of $30.69 per share. This transaction is expected to be less than $0.02 accretive this year and approximately $0.05 accretive next year.

Next Reports ... Members of management will give presentations at Better Investing Investor Fairs in Overland Park, Kansas, on Saturday, April 29, and in Irvine, California, and Teaneck, New Jersey, on Saturday, May 13. Additionally, the Company will hold an Analyst Meeting in Boston on Thursday, May 25. For more information, please email investorinfo@baldor.com .

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", "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.