Thursday November 11, 2021
Raised forecasts exceeded
Siemens expects normality after the boom
The Siemens group looks to booming business in view of the economic recovery. The shareholders are treated surprisingly generously. In the coming year the company expects a return to normal growth. Another tightening should help.
The technology group Siemens, driven by the economic recovery after the corona lockdown, exceeded its forecast, which had been raised three times. After the recent very strong growth, the Munich technology group expects a slowdown in the second year under the leadership of CEO Roland Busch.
“We will continue with this momentum in the 2022 financial year,” promised Busch. With a targeted comparable growth of around five percent, however, normalization is emerging here. The Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure and Mobility divisions remaining in the group are expected to grow by five to eight percent each. The Munich-based company is expecting, that corona effects and delivery bottlenecks will subside in the course of the year. Until the end of March, however, customers should expect longer delivery times – also because of the high order backlog, said Busch.
In the year that ended in September, Siemens was able to meet its requirements for components and raw materials and meet its delivery obligations. So now customers have to be prepared for higher prices. As a technology leader, Siemens wants to gradually pass on the higher costs for raw materials and transport, as Busch said.
In the end, the Dax group earned 6.7 billion euros, around 60 percent more than a year ago. Income on a comparable basis rose by 11.5 percent, new business increased by more than a fifth. The shareholders are to be rewarded with a dividend of four euros per share. Such a leap was not expected in the market, mainly because Siemens will have to go even higher next year following the new dividend policy. The Siemens share rose.
Siemens sees adjusted earnings per share in the new fiscal year at EUR 8.70 to EUR 9.10 – between five and nine percent more than last. Sales and valuation effects, which brought in around 1.5 billion euros in additional net profit last year, should contribute to this again. CFO Ralf Thomas expects income of a similar magnitude this year.
A first step in this direction has already been taken with the IPO of the US large battery specialist Fluence Energy in October. After the stock market valuation of more than four billion dollars, Siemens calculates a profit of around 200 million euros after taxes.
In addition, other businesses are to be made independent, such as Siemens Large Drives, the business with large drives from the so-called portfolio companies. It was also announced that the currently booming business with solutions for letters and parcels will be separated from the logistics division. In both cases a sale would be possible. Road traffic technology subsidiary Yunex has already had the carve-out behind it. The Siemens boss emphasized that this is the only company in the world that can serve all standards.