Siemens Says Worst Is Still to Come as Coronavirus Hits Profits

   By Ruth Bender 
 

BERLIN--Siemens AG said Friday that it expects an even bigger hit from the coronavirus pandemic in the quarter ending June after the German engineering giant's profits and orders tumbled in the first three months of 2020 due to the current crisis.

"Many of our key industries are impacted strongly," said Chief Executive Joe Kaeser, citing automakers, airlines and machine building, where Siemens expects the full impact of government lockdowns to be felt in the months April to June. Beyond that, Siemens said it can't yet make reliable predictions and pulled its previous guidance.

Siemens' industrial profit, a core measure of its operating performance, fell 18% to 1.59 billion euros ($1.72 billion) in the three months ended March, as all industrial businesses were hurt by the pandemic. Orders fell 8% due to sharp declines at the train-engineering business.

Sales, however, fell only 1% to EUR14.23 billion as medical technology business Siemens Healthineers was able to offset declining sales at the trains division and digital industries.

Despite the current challenges, Siemens is sticking to the timetable for the spin off and listing of its Siemens Energy business before the end of September. In the long run, Mr. Kaeser said he expects the trend of factory automation and digitalization to accelerate as a result of this pandemic, which should provide new growth opportunities for Siemens.

Write to Ruth Bender at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2020 03:35 ET (07:35 GMT)

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