[ZX3TUNR]

Quote: Audi sells Cosworth engine group to Mahle


Reuters / December 23, 2004

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen AG's premium car division Audi has sold its high-performance engine unit Cosworth Technology Ltd. to Germany's Mahle Gmbh.

Audi gave no financial details for the sale of Cosworth, which developed the engine in the Audi RS6 model and worked for other customers as well. The deal takes effect at the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.

Stuttgart-based Mahle, one of the world's top 30 automotive suppliers, makes pistons, engine components and filter systems. It had 2003 sales of 3.2 billion euros ($4.28 billion).

Based in England, Cosworth Technology develops, manufactures and assembles engines and employs 970 staff at three British plants and at one site in the United States.

The British branch generated 2003 sales of 112 million pounds ($218 million), while the U.S. arm had sales of $31 million, it said.

Audi bought Cosworth in 1998 from British group Vickers Plc for 117 million pounds, then sold the famed Cosworth Formula One racing engines business to Ford Motor Co.

Ford sold that business last month to Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe, owners of the PKV and Forsythe racing teams and co-owners of the Champ Car racing series.