Khd Loss Widens, Says Future Secure

Kloeckner- Humboldt- Deutz AG, said the DM1.06 billion bail-out it received in June from Deutsche Bank and other creditors, boosted it to a profit of DM819.6 million in the first half of 1996, and that its future is secure.

KHD will shed the plant construction unit responsible for the losses in Saudi Arabia, now estimated at DM960 million, and concentrate on its diesel-engine business.

It will also change its name to Deutz AG.

Sales in 1996 are seen at DM2.2 to 2.3 billion, rising by DM200 million in 1997, chairman Anton Schneider told reporters.

He hoped a break- even for the full year.

Schneider and chief financial officer Klaus Edelmann strenuously disputed speculation that they had been informed of the losses at subsidiary Humboldt Wedag long before the management board disclosed them in May, and that they had knowingly participated in the cover-up.

Schneider and Edelmann asserted that Wedag management alone had deliberately deceived the company, its creditors and shareholders.