Paul Stodden, the chief executive of Munich, Germany-based SBS, told ComputerWire last year that he has been set a target of achieving an EBIT margin of 5% to 6% in the financial year to September 2004. However, this seemed unlikely following the announcement last month of results in its financial year to September 2003 when it reported an 87% decrease in operating profit to 13m euros ($15.2m), on revenue that fell 10% to 5.21bn euros ($6.09bn).
This gave it an operating margin of only 0.2%, but Stodden told a press conference in Germany on Wednesday that he expects an increase in operating profit in 2004 on flat revenue growth, and said that the profitability target of between 5% and 6% is not unachievable.
Stodden said SBS would cut costs by 288m euros ($349m) this year, and is planning to double its revenue in the US to in excess of $1bn. He ruled out the prospect of a merger with the IT services operation of Fujitsu Corp, with which Siemens already runs the PC manufacturing joint venture Fujitsu Siemens.
This article is based on material originally produced by ComputerWire.
