German electronics and engineering giant Siemens AG said domestic business has gathered momentum again, following two years of decline, helping it meet its profit goal of $1,414m for 1994-95. Preliminary figures show group net profit in the year to September 30 was $1,471m, compared with $1.410m after extraordinaries in 1993-94. Final results for 1994-95 will be given at the annual press conference on December 14. Siemens reiterated its half year currency warnings (CI No 2,653) and said its business volume was reduced by $4,951m in 1994-95 due to currency shifts, rising costs and falling prices. Without these factors, sales would actually have risen 13%, it said. Domestic orders were up 8% to $2,685m, while domestic sales rose 6% to $2,678m. International business, on the other hand, was hurt by the strong mark and a dip in major contracts. Foreign orders were steady at $3,808m, while sales gained 4% at $3,596m. Performance throughout the various Siemens divisions varied. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG was profitable for the first time in four years – first time since its creation indeed – with a pre-tax profit of $43.8m for the year ended September 30, compared with a $225.4m loss a year earlier. The components division, which includes semiconductors, was the biggest earner, boosted by surging sales and substantial productivity gains. It showed a pre-tax profit of $720m, nearly triple its $212m profit of a year earlier. Pre-tax profits in the Osram lighting division were up 16.5% at $240m, but earnings in the communications, energy and transport segments declined. The telecommunications division had a pre-tax profit of $455m, down from $787m a year earlier. Siemens said the power generation group had additional high expenditures for decommissioning its fuel-element production facility at Hanau, while profits from public communications networks were down due to lower sales. Staff cuts were lower than expected in the year, down 3% in Germany and actually up 2% internationally.
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