As many of you may or may not be aware, there are two companies called Rolls-Royce. One is called the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars that produces super-luxury rides like the Phantom, Ghost, Wraith and Dawn range of models, while the other is called Rolls-Royce Plc. that manufactures power systems for aircraft, ships and land applications.
Founded in 1904 by Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry-Royce, the company started out making automobiles, but branched into aircraft engines during the First World War. Rolls-Royce Limited began developing jet engines in the 1940s, an endeavor that eventually led to its financial collapse and nationalization. The British government subsequently split the company into two – one dealing with automobiles and the other with aircraft engines – with the former sold to Vickers and the latter separately incorporated and launching its IPO on the stock market in 1987.
Today, although both the luxury automaker and the world’s largest manufacturers of aviation engines share the rights to the same brand name and logo, they are both completely separate companies. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BMW Group (Munich), based at Goodwood near Chichester in West Sussex, United Kingdom. It commenced business on 1 January 2003 at its new global production facility.
The reason for this clarification is due to the fact that Rolls-Royce Plc. has been making headlines for the past few days. The aviation manufacturing company has been under investigation for the past few years over allegations that it won contracts in countries around the world through questionable means. Those revolve principally around the bribery of key officials in countries such as Russia, India, and Nigeria.
Under the leadership of CEO Warren East since 2015, Rolls-Royce Plc. cooperated with investigators from the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, freely providing incriminating documents uncovering the criminal activities of his predecessors and intermediary brokers who acted on the company’s behalf.
With the investigation now complete, Rolls-Royce has agreed under a Deferred Prosecution Agreement to pay the equivalent of over $600 million in fines in the UK, as well as another $170 million in the United States and over $25 million in Brazil. The first year of payment alone (between all three countries) will come to over $360 million.
“The behaviour uncovered in the course of the investigations by the Serious Fraud Office and other authorities is completely unacceptable and we apologise unreservedly for it,” said East. “This was unworthy of everything which Rolls-Royce stands for, and that our people, customers, investors and partners rightly expect from us.”
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars clarifies that they no involvement whatsoever in issues relating to alleged bribery and subsequent legal settlements reached by Rolls-Royce Plc. with authorities in various jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.
Source: Roll-Royce, Carscoops
