Siemens profit falls, upbeat on outlook

MUNICH: German industrial giant Siemens on Thursday reported full-year earnings down by a quarter as the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy but it was positive on a return to global growth in 2021.

Net profit for the 12 months to September was 4.2 billion euros ($4.9 billion), down 25 percent compared with 5.6 billion euros in 2019, on the back of "demand declines" due to the health crisis, Siemens said.

The Munich-based company, which makes products ranging from trains to factory equipment, said group revenue was fairly stable, falling just 2.0 to 57.1 billion euros.

At the end of September, Siemens spun off its Energy division, which includes oil-and-gas operations, and last month sold components subsidiary Flender to US-based Carlyle for 2.0 billion euros.

For its fourth quarter alone, Siemens' net profit jumped 28 percent year-on-year to 1.9 billion euros, beating expectations, with the Energy sale contributing some 900 million billion euros.

The company "delivered a strong finish to a remarkable year", outgoing chief executive Joe Kaeser said.

Siemens is slimming down, spinning off assets to refocus as a technology company.

"After the Energy spin-off and the Flender disposal, Siemens is very well positioned to lead the industrial transformation going forward," Kaeser said.

For the outlook, the company predicted Covid-19 "will not have a long-lasting impact on the world economy."

However, it anticipates "important customer industries for Siemens will continue to face challenges related to the pandemic", resulting in "growth in global fixed investments (lagging) behind GDP growth".