UTC to sell gas turbine business to MHI

United Technologies Corp (UTC) announced on 12 December it had reached an agreement to sell its Pratt & Whitney Power Systems (PWPS) unit to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). The terms of the agreement were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013, according to UTC.

"Divesting Power Systems allows UTC to focus on its core aerospace and commercial businesses," a press statement revealed. Pratt & Whitney President David Hess said the deal was part of UTC's "ongoing portfolio transformation".

In 2002 Pratt & Whitney reorganised its industrial, including marine, gas turbine businesses under a single organisation: PWPS. The new company merged the marine and industrial programmes previously handled by Pratt & Whitney Canada (250 kW to 4 MW) and Turbo Power and Marine (25-60 MW).

Since 1960 Turbo Power & Marine (TP&M) had delivered hundreds of industrial gas turbine packages, and was a wholly-owned subsidiary of UTC. TP&M was responsible for the design, manufacturing, installation, and commissioning of packaged power plants, one example being the FT8 engine. The FT8 gas turbine package is powered by a derivative of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine, which is widely used in aircraft applications.