Hamburg - Indian-owned wind-turbine company Repower posted record earnings Friday, with the German subsidiary of Suzlon forecasting sales in the current year of 1.1 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars). Earnings before interest and tax in 2007 were 28.2 million euros (43.1 million dollars), double the level in 2006, Repower said from its Hamburg, Germany head office. Provisional sales rose 48 per cent to 680 million euros.
The company had orders in hand for 636 wind turbines with a contract value of 1.3 billion euros and expected an EBIT margin on sales this year of 5.5 to 5.6 per cent, it announced.
The newspaper Financial Times Deutschland reported this week that Repower was resisting operative control by Suzlon, although the Indian company controls 86.5 per cent of the voting shares in Repower.
"I'm the boss of Repower," chief executive Per Hornung Pedersen was reported saying.
The newspaper said Repower management had warned Suzlon it could not give orders unless it obtained the legal status of Repower's parent company.
Repower was angered that Suzlon had attempted to take confidential Repower technical know-how to India and to force the German company to buy Suzlon rotor blades and gearboxes, the paper said.
