Palfinger : Herbert Ortner announces to resign as CEO of PALFINGER AG

• Information to the Supervisory Board not to prolong his position
• CEO mandate will end as of December 31, 2017
• Immediate instructions to search for successor

Bergheim, 8 November 2017

Herbert Ortner, Chief Executive Officer of PALFINGER AG, informed the Supervisory Board today that he does not intend to prolong his contract that terminates by the end of the year 2018. Therefore, he aggreed with the Nomination Comittee of the Supervisory Board to terminate his position as of December 31, 2017 and to organize a smooth handover in the upcoming weeks. After that time, Herbert Ortner will act as a counsellor to the Palfinger family.

'I am happy to have developed PALFINGER to a global leader of our industry. We achieved this in close cooperation with a professional management team and the Supervisory Board. I am convinced that the PALFINGER Group is in a perfect competitive position and that the professional management team will achieve a great performance in the years to come', comments the parting CEO on the change on the top of the Management Board.

The Supervisory Board accepted Ortner's decision with great regret and instructed the Nomination Committee with the immediate search for a successor. 'We are full of gratitude for Herberts brilliant strategic and operational performance, for his unconditional committment for our company and the family and we wish him fortune and success for his future activities.'

Herbert Ortner joined the management team of PALFINGER 16 years ago, only after almost two years he was elected into the Management Board as CMO. Under his leadership, the global service business has been fully developed and is a reliable contributor to stable earnings. He then assumed responsibility for the segment 'Hydraulic Systems' and completed the product portfolio. 2008, on the eve of the financial crisis, he has been appointed to the position of the Chief Executive Officer. At that time, he was the youngest CEO of any industrial company in Austria. Since the financial crisis he trippled revenues from EUR 505 million in 2009 to approximately EUR 1.5 billion in 2017 and tenfold increased operative earnings measured by EBITDA. PALFINGER acquired und integrated more than 30 companies and developed to a global player with a complete range of innovative lifting solutions for use on commercial vehicles and in the maritime field, with production and assembling facilities in Europe, in North and South America as well as in Asia.