Siemens CEO Eyes Health-Care Expansion - Report

FRANKFURT--Germany's Siemens AG (SIE.XE) has no plans to float its health-care unit next year and instead wants to grow the business through acquisitions, Chief Executive Joe Kaeser tells German magazine Wirtschaftswoche in an interview published Saturday.

Asked whether he plans to list the unit on the stock market in 2015, Mr. Kaeser said "no."

He added that he wants to prepare the unit for a shift to molecular biology, molecular diagnostics and biotechnology. "We want to provide the health-care unit with more flexibility, potentially also by acquisitions," he said.

The industrial and engineering company is set for growth again in 2016 but will see an operating consolidation next year, Mr. Kaeser said, asking investors and analysts to be patient.

"I know some analysts think we're too slow...Siemens isn't being prepared for the next quarters or year, however, but rather for the next generation," he said.

Over the past year, Mr. Kaeser has been working on shedding noncore businesses and streamlining divisions as part of a cost-cutting program and broader restructuring of the trains-to-medical-equipment giant. In October, he separated the health-care business operationally from the rest of Siemens, creating what he called "a company within a company."

Analysts said the move could be the first step toward divesting the rest of the health-care business.

Write to Frankfurt bureau at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires