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Press Releases
Lichtenstein/Saxony, May 26, 2008. Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH has resumed the delivery of spare parts and engines to its customers. Due to the insolvency proceedings, however, the company is forced to demand payment in advance for any warranty and maintenance services rendered for the time being. Thielert insolvency administrator Dr. Bruno M. Kübler pointed out that this measure was necessary in the interests of saving the company.

“When a company is restructured, customers and creditors sometimes have to make some painful compromises,” commented Kübler. “The advance-payment system, however, is fair and transparent and is based on the mandatory principle of German insolvency law that all customers and creditors are treated equally. The goal is to secure production at Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH in the short term. This, in turn, will encourage potential investors and make an important contribution towards saving the company in the long term. In the final analysis, this is the only way to guarantee that Centurion engines and spare parts will remain available in the future as well.”

There are more than enough Thielert spare parts and engines available and they will be supplied reliably against payment. Customers who pay in advance need not worry that the parts ordered will not be delivered: each order is checked to make sure that the part ordered is in stock or can be produced. And this is possible in the vast majority of cases. It is not until after this information has been confirmed that the customer will be asked to make the payment in advance, after which the part will be delivered. “As the insolvency administrator, I guarantee that every customer who pays in advance will also receive the part ordered,” explained Dr. Kübler.

In the past few days, aircraft manufacturer Diamond Aircraft issued information to the press, saying that the insolvency administration was not very cooperative in negotiations and did not seem very interested in securing the business of Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH in the long term. “This argumentation is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts,” said Kübler. “In actual fact, Diamond offered to buy a large number of engines and spare parts – but at a price considerably lower than the price that would be charged to the end customer. That’s how Diamond tried to negotiate special conditions, which German law does not allow us to grant. Diamond has not yet directly responded to our offer dating from May 13, 2008, in which all the required spare parts would be delivered to Diamond, as a big customer, with conditions that are not negotiable for the reasons stated in the above. Instead, Diamond has been trying – against all better judgment and making untrue statements without exception – to make Diamond and Thielert customers feel massively insecure and to put pressure on Thielert by appealing to the public. Now that more than one week has passed, we will release the parts for the market.”

And the demand is still high: since the beginning of the insolvency proceedings, many binding spare parts orders have been confirmed and have either already been delivered or will be delivered in the near future. “The customers we have supplied were all relieved that the necessary parts are in stock and that they were delivered accordingly.”

About Bruno M. Kübler:
Dr. Bruno M. Kübler (born in 1945) is one of Germany’s most well-known insolvency administrators. He is the founder and a senior partner of the law firm KÜBLER, which specializes in insolvency management. It ranks among Germany’s leading firms for insolvency law and is represented in 27 different business locations throughout Germany. Acting as an insolvency administrator since the year 1978, Dr. Kübler has managed more than 1,000 corporate insolvency proceedings, including those of numerous manufacturing companies such as machine toolmakers (HECKERT), automobile suppliers (Sachsenring), motorcycle manufacturers (MuZ) and in the retail trade, e.g. the Konsumgenossenschaft Ostsachsen (East Saxony consumer cooperative) or the bookshop chain Bouvier. In addition, Dr. Kübler has considerable experience in the airplane industry. Dr. Kübler recently reorganized the Brandenburg aircraft manufacturer Aquila.

Additional information may be obtained at www.kuebler-gbr.de/cgi-bin/partner/partnerlist.cgi

About Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH:
Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH is the leading provider of certified kerosene piston aircraft engines for general aviation. As a certified development, manufacturing and maintenance aviation enterprise, the company was the first in the world to be approved for a kerosene piston engine.

Press Contact
Emmanuel Davidson
Tel 1.: +1 251 623 8236
Tel 2.: +336 4823 5559
Email: edavidson@continental.aero

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