Siemens Pakistan receives new orders of Rs7.1bn

KARACHI: New orders of Rs7.1 billion have been received by Siemens Pakistan during the first six months of the company's financial year commencing from October.

This was stated by the board of directors of Siemens Pakistan in a report here on Monday.

It presented the unaudited condensed interim financial statements of the Company for the six months period ended March 31, 2011.

The report said that the new orders of Rs7.1 billion have been received during the first six months period and have decreased by 50 percent as compared to the corresponding six months period of last year due to less orders intake in Energy Sector particularly in business unit transformers, where some of the orders are delayed by power utilities.

In the corresponding period of last year, new orders included an amount of Rs3.3 billion received in Dubai.

Major contributions in new orders included order for long-term maintenance service agreement for a power generating company; Design, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of 220 KV Air Insulated Switchgear (AIS) for a customer and orders for supply of power transformers to power utilities.

The sales decreased by 50 percent to just under Rs7.2 billion mainly due to reduction in order intake in the last two years and delays in execution of some orders.

Further, in the corresponding period of last year, total sales also include an amount of Rs6.4 billion made in Dubai. Major contributions include projects being executed in the Energy and Industry Sectors.

The profit before tax stood at Rs346 million which decreased to the level of 5 percent of sales as against 6 percent in the corresponding period mainly because of under absorption of fixed cost of the Company due to low sales activity, high inflation and tough competition.

The company has started a number of cost saving initiatives and is committed to these initiatives to result in improvement in profitability of the Company.

The operational profitability for the first six months period and in particular the economic outlook for the months to come, the Board has decided not to pay interim dividend for the current six months period.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011