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Baldor Electric Announces Annual Shareholders' Meeting Highlights

2 May 2000

Baldor Electric Company Announces Annual Shareholders' Meeting Highlights, 2nd Quarter 2000 Dividend, and Stock Repurchase Program Authorized

    FORT SMITH, Ark., May 1 Baldor Electric Company
(NYSE: BEZ) markets, designs, and manufactures electric motors and drives and
is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Baldor's Chairman, R. S. Boreham, Jr.,
today made the following announcements.
    Annual Shareholders' Meeting Highlights ... The Company's Annual
Shareholders' Meeting was held on April 29, 2000, in Fort Smith, and was
attended by many shareholders and guests.  Following are the highlights of the
meeting:

    --  Company directors John A. McFarland and Robert L. Proost were
        re-elected each to serve a three-year term to expire in 2003.

    --  Dr. Merlin J. Augustine, Jr. was elected to serve as a director on the
        Board for a three-year term to expire in 2003.

    --  The Company also announced it will double the size of its plant in
        Ozark, Arkansas, to 147,000 sq. ft.  This expansion is expected to be
        completed by the end of 2000.  The Ozark plant produces motors from
        20-100 HP.  A key Baldor strategy is to increase its market share in
        these horsepower sizes.

    2nd Quarter 2000 Dividend ... The Board of Directors declared a regular
quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share on the Company's common stock.  The
cash dividend is payable on June 30, 2000, to shareholders of record on
June 9, 2000.

    Stock Repurchase Program ... The Board authorized the repurchase of up to
1.5 million additional shares of the Company's common stock.  This new stock
repurchase program will expire December 31, 2001.  Repurchases may encompass
both open market and negotiated transactions.  Including this new
authorization, a total of 6.0 million shares have been authorized for
repurchase since September 1998.  The Company has repurchased over 3.7 million
shares since that time.