Siemens ended the fiscal year, which was marked by the Ukraine war and high write-downs on the former energy business, with a profit in the billions. After a strong fourth quarter, the bottom line is a plus of 4.4 billion euros, as the company announced in Munich. In the new fiscal year, which has been running since October, Siemens wants to earn significantly more again.
The central industrial business at Siemens had even run at a record level. Siemens earned more than 10 billion euros there. The fact that the bottom line profit fell by 34 percent was mainly due to a billion-dollar write-down on the remaining shares in the energy business Siemens Energy, which was floated on the stock exchange a good two years ago. It even gave the group its first quarter of losses in more than a decade. But the withdrawal from Russia also had a negative impact on business.
Nevertheless, sales increased nominally by almost 16 percent to 72 billion euros. The shareholders will not feel anything from the drop in profits either: the dividend is to rise by 25 cents to EUR 4.25 per share.
Siemens boss: “Outstanding performance”
Siemens CEO Roland Busch spoke of an “extremely challenging year” and an “outstanding performance”. Siemens has gained market share and the high demand for the group’s hardware and software offerings is continuing, he stressed. In the fourth quarter of the year, everything was right again at Siemens with a whopping profit of 2.9 billion euros.
For the current year, Siemens expects a significant increase in profit. Adjusted for certain purchase price effects, it should rise to EUR 8.70 to EUR 9.20 per share. That would be an increase of 59 to 68 percent – last year it was 5.47 euros per share.
