Porsche to liquidate aero engine branch
Sat Mar 5, 3:54 PM ET
Business - AFP
BERLIN (AFP) - German sports carmaker Porsche said that it planned to wind up its aircraft engine subsidiary which has been losing it tens of millions of euros annually.
Porsche went into aircraft engine manufacture 20 years ago prompted by its former boss Peter Werner, a keen pilot.
Production was wound up but a subsidiary was set up to repair and sell aero engine components of 20 remaining airworthy planes fitted with Porsche engines.
The branch was costing the parent company, the most profitable carmaker in the world, tens of million of euros in annual losses.
The latest edition of Der Spiegel appearing on Monday said the group's present chief Wendelin Wiedeking had offered to replace the Porsche engines of customers by another make for free, or to buy back the plane from the customer.
But many plane owners had refused the offer because of the Porsche aircraft engine's reputation for reliability, the report said.