MAN Diesel eyes 3 bln euro sales by 2010 -report

FRANKFURT, July 21 (Reuters) - The head of MAN Diesel (MANG.DE) said a 40 percent rise in sales to 3 billion euros ($4.75 billion) by 2010 would be realistic, a German magazine reported on Monday.

Georg Pachta-Reyhofen told Germany's Euro magazine that MAN Diesel was not feeling the pinch from a slowdown in economic growth worldwide.

The company would also benefit from stronger emission regulations for the shipping industry, which would lead to "new business opportunities from re-fittings of older engines", Pachta-Reyhofen was quoted as saying in an interview to be published on Wednesday.

MAN Diesel's order backlog stood at 4.3 billion euros at the beginning of July, Pachta-Reyhofen said, and the trend was upwards.

MAN Diesel makes massive low and medium-speed engines for seagoing vessels as well as power plant applications. Pachta-Reyhofen told Euro that sales at its power plant division could more than double by 2010 from 260 million euros last year.

"We should reach 500 to 600 million by 2010," Pachta-Reyhofen said.

MAN Diesel is aiming for an operating margin of around 15 percent, up from 14.3 percent last year, the magazine said.

The company also planned to expand its service network through small acquisitions.

"Large acquisitions could be difficult due to our leading market position in many areas," he said.

MAN Diesel competes with Finland's Wartsila Oy WRTBV.HE, which like MAN Diesel specialises in larger engines that can deliver as much as 80,000 kilowatts in power, while smaller rival Tognum's (TGMG.DE) high-speed engines range in output from 20 to 9,000 kilowatts.

While MAN Diesel and Tognum largely operate in different market segments, parent MAN had bid for the former Daimler (DAIGn.DE) off-highway unit Tognum to round out its portfolio with smaller diesel engines, but was beaten in 2006 by Swedish private equity firm EQT's bid of 1.6 billion euros.

Pachta-Reyhofen said a merger with Tognum was no longer attractive as MAN's commercial vehicles division had built up a similar business in this segment. (Reporting by Eva Kuehnen; editing by Tony Austin)