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Siemens boss Kaeser: Good results shortly before saying goodbye to top management
Photo: Matthias Balk / DPA
The Munich industrial group Siemens has so far coped with the corona crisis well.
In the fiscal year just ended, the profit fell by a quarter, but the bottom line is still an increase of 4.2 billion euros, the group announced.
The very good business in the Group's fourth quarter from July to September made a significant contribution to this.
In these three months alone, Siemens earned 1.9 billion euros, to which, however, a profit from the spin-off from Siemens Energy also contributed.
The adjusted operating result from the industrial business looks even better than the net profit.
At 7.6 billion euros, this was only three percent below the previous year's result of 7.8 billion euros.
Sales and incoming orders fell slightly when the spun off energy subsidiary is excluded.
Siemens concluded "a remarkable fiscal year with a strong fourth quarter," said the outgoing CEO Joe Kaeser.
The years are the last for which he is responsible.
In February 2021 he is to be replaced by his deputy Roland Busch.
Good prospects for the new financial year too
However, Kaeser has to announce a falling dividend for the first time in his seven-year tenure.
The shareholders will receive EUR 3.50 per share instead of the previous EUR 3.90.
The company sees Kaeser as being "excellently positioned" after it listed its energy business as Siemens Energy on the stock exchange in recent months and sold its drive subsidiary Flender for around two billion euros.
The designated successor Busch spoke of a new chapter in the 173-year history of the company.
Siemens is also optimistic about the new fiscal year 2021, which started in October.
Although the group expects "considerable burdens" from currency effects, profit should increase moderately.
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fdi / Reuters / dpa
