MTU Aero Engines Holding AG was created in 2004, as a result of MTU Aero Engines Erste Holding GmbH’s transformation into a joint stock company, shortly before the IPO. Prior to the IPO, the company was owned by funds managed by one of the world’s leading private equity firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). The funds had acquired the company at the end of 2003. Until that time, it had been a wholly owned subsidiary of the then DaimlerChrysler AG. Because the long-established MTU only became an independently controlled company again as from the 2004 financial year, the comparative presentations in this Annual Report are limited to the years 2004 to 2008.