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Exide Corporation Announces Q1 Cash Dividend

12 August 1998

Exide Corporation Announces First Quarter Cash Dividend and Update on the Annual Shareholders' Meeting

    BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Aug. 12 -- Arthur M. Hawkins,
Chairman, President and CEO of Exide Corporation , today announced
that the corporation has declared a cash dividend of $.02 (two cents) per
share of common stock payable September 3, 1998, to shareholders of record on
August 24, 1998.
    In a speech today, at Exide Corporation's annual stockholders' meeting,
Arthur Hawkins said, "senior management had not yet made a proposal to the
Board regarding a management-led recapitalization that was being studied last
week."  He emphasized that no decision had been made to sell the Company.  He
reported that a special committee of outside directors had been reestablished
to review any such proposal, and that committee is in the process of selecting
an investment banking firm to assist it in reviewing any proposal.
    "As to the Company's operations," Hawkins said, "the European
restructuring continues unabated, while orders so far this year have been
strong.  Our focus has and always will be to maintain large market shares, run
the most efficient plants in the world, and continue to be the technological
leader."
    Exide Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of lead-acid
batteries, is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with administrative
offices in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Exide is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol "EX".