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[maywillow] 24/1/2012 09:44

Siemens Finance Chief Says Osram Listing in 2012 Is 'Likely'
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Aujourd'hui : Tuesday 24 January 2012
Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SIE.XE) will "likely" list its Osram lighting unit on the stock exchange this calendar year, after postponing the plan in 2011 due to market volatility, Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said Tuesday.

Stock market sentiment has improved, Kaeser said at a media conference in Munich. The comments come only weeks after Kaeser told The Wall Street Journal Deutschland that an Osram flotation remained on the agenda but wasn't a top priority for Siemens.

Osram's revenue rose 7% in Siemens' fiscal first quarter, which ended in December. The unit's after-tax profit was EUR115 million, up slightly from EUR111 million a year earlier.

The Munich-based company said in March it planned to list a majority Osram stake in what could have been a multi-billion-euro transaction. Siemens, however, postponed the plan in September, citing volatile stock markets.

Osram said last week it plans to cut as many as 1,050 jobs in its traditional lighting business in Germany to account for the industry's move toward light-emitting-diode technology.

-By Philipp Grontzki, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

[ariane] 24/1/2012 08:34

source: WSJ

By PHILIPP GRONTZKI
FRANKFURT-Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said Tuesday its first-quarter profit dropped as the European debt crisis started to hit the wider economy.

Net profit in the three months ended Dec. 31 fell to €1.44 billion ($1.87 billion) from €1.72 billion a year earlier, the Munich-based company said, in line with what analysts expected. The figure was hit by extra charges, including some for delays in offshore wind-farm connections. Revenue rose to €17.9 billion from €17.6 billion.

Siemens, which makes medical scanners as well as gas turbines and streetcars, confirmed its forecast for the fiscal year ending September, but again warned that meeting the goals will require hard work after first-quarter new orders declined 4.9% to €19.81 billion. Analysts had expected the drop to be only 2.7%.

"The uncertainties of the ongoing debt crisis have left their mark on the real economy," Chief Executive Peter Löscher said, adding that he expects a recovery in the second half of the year.

The company already said last year that the European debt crisis may prompt customers to tighten spending, but Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser earlier this month sounded a more pessimistic note, describing Siemens's full-year guidance-released in November-as "very ambitious" as economic conditions worsen.

The comments echoed other news from the sector. Royal Philips Electronics NV on Jan. 10 reported poor preliminary fourth-quarter figures on weak market conditions in its health care and lighting businesses in Europe, while General Electric Co. is restructuring its European businesses to "reflect market conditions."

Back in November, Siemens forecast sales would increase between 3% and 5% in fiscal 2012, thanks to a high order backlog, and said it expects profit from continuing operations to be flat at €6 billion before a €1 billion net gain following its exit from the Areva NP nuclear power joint venture. Mr. Löscher however said Tuesday that sales growth will likely be on the lower end of the targeted range.

Profit in the period was burdened by charges of €203 million related to delays in contracts with electricity grid operator TenneT regarding the connection of offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the power grid. Mr. Kaeser said earlier this month that Siemens anticipates considerably higher costs, blaming the delays on complex approval procedures.

The company also booked €72 million in costs linked to the restructuring of its health-care division, announced in November, which includes job cuts in the diagnostics unit. Another extra charge of €69 million arose from delays regarding a train order in Germany.

Write to Philipp Grontzki at [e-mail]

[ariane] 24/1/2012 08:23

UPDATE: Siemens Profit Falls As Economic Conditions Get Tough
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Today : Tuesday 24 January 2012
Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) said Tuesday its fiscal first-quarter profit dropped as the European debt crisis is impacting the wider economy.

Net profit in the three months to Dec. 31 fell to EUR1.44 billion from EUR1.72 billion a year earlier, the Munich-based company said, in line with analysts' expectations despite a number of extra charges, including some for delays in offshore wind farm connections.

Siemens, which makes medical scanners as well as gas turbines and streetcars, confirmed its forecast for the fiscal year ending September, but again warned that meeting the goals will require hard work after first-quarter new orders declined 4.9% to EUR19.81 billion. Analysts had expected the drop to be only 2.7%.

"The uncertainties of the ongoing debt crisis have left their mark on the real economy," Chief Executive Peter Loescher said, adding that he expects a recovery in the second half of the year.

The company already said last year that the European debt crisis may prompt customers to tighten spending, but Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser earlier this month sounded a more pessimistic note, describing Siemens' full-year guidance--released in November--as "very ambitious" as economic conditions worsen.

The comments echoed other news from the sector. Royal Philips Electronics NV (PHG) on Jan. 10 reported poor preliminary fourth-quarter figures on weak market conditions in its healthcare and lighting businesses in Europe, while General Electric Co. (GE) is restructuring its European businesses to "reflect market conditions."

Back in November, Siemens forecast sales would increase between 3% and 5% in fiscal 2012, thanks to a high order backlog, and said it expects profit from continuing operations to be flat at EUR6 billion before a EUR1 billion net gain following its exit from the Areva NP nuclear power joint venture.

CEO Loescher however said Tuesday that sales growth will likely be on the lower end of the targeted range. Sales rose 1.7% to EUR17.9 billion in the first quarter.

Profit in the period was burdened by charges of EUR203 million related to delays in contracts with electricity grid operator TenneT regarding the connection of offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the power grid. Kaeser said earlier this month that Siemens anticipates considerably higher costs, blaming the delays on complex approval procedures.

The company also booked EUR72 million in costs linked to the restructuring of its healthcare division, announced in November, which includes job cuts in the diagnostics unit. Another extra charge of EUR69 million arose from delays regarding a train order in Germany.

-By Philipp Grontzki, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone], [e-mail]

[ariane] 23/1/2012 20:44

By Philipp Grontzki
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SIE.XE) may provide evidence that the macroeconomic backdrop has worsened when it reports fiscal first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires on average expect new orders in the three months ended Dec. 31 to be down 2.7% at EUR20.3 billion compared with the same period last year, and profit is also seen declining.

While the company already warned last year that the European debt crisis may prompt customers to keep their spending tight, Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser earlier this month sent out an even more pessimistic message by indicating that Siemens' full-year guidance -- which was released in November -- is already in danger.

"Our guidance is very ambitious," he told The Wall Street Journal Deutschland in an interview published Jan. 10. "It certainly hasn't gotten easier to achieve our goals since we released them. The headwinds have become stronger."

Siemens forecast in November that sales would increase 3% to 5% in fiscal 2012, thanks to a high order backlog, and said it expects profit from continuing operations to be flat at EUR6 billion when stripping out a EUR1 billion net gain that occurred in 2011 following its exit from the Areva NP nuclear power joint venture.

Kaeser said in the interview it would require "tough work" to meet the profit forecast. He also said Siemens expects industrial demand to be slow in the first six months of this calendar year, but anticipates a rebound in the second half.

The comments reflect other news from competitors. Royal Philips Electronics NV (PHIA.AE) on Jan. 10 reported poor preliminary fourth-quarter figures on weak market conditions in its healthcare and lighting businesses in Europe, while General Electric Co. (GE) is restructuring its European businesses to "reflect market conditions."

Siemens, whose products include hearing aids, streetcars and gas turbines, will hold its annual general meeting in Munich on Tuesday and traditionally also releases first-quarter figures as part of the event. Analysts expect net profit will have dropped 16% to EUR1.44 billion in the period.

In any case, the first quarter of fiscal 2011 provides a tough comparison base, as Siemens back then was still also still benefitting from economic recovery tail winds following the 2009 economic crisis.

Profit will most likely be burdened by charges arising from delays in contracts with electricity grid operator TenneT regarding the connection of offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the power grid. Kaeser said Siemens anticipates considerable extra costs, blaming the delays on complex approval procedures.

Deutsche Bank analyst Peter Reilly assumes related charges of at least EUR100 million in the quarter, "perhaps with more to follow."

Siemens also said in November that full-year profit will be hit by extra charges linked to the restructuring of its healthcare division, which includes job cuts in the diagnostics unit. Kaeser said in the interview that the charges are likely to be lower than EUR300 million originally envisaged.

-By Philipp Grontzki, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone], [e-mail]

[ariane] 22/1/2012 18:53

Siemens to deliver key Saudi plant component
Riyadh: Sat, 21 Jan 2012

Siemens said the first major components for the 2400MW Ras Al-Khair power plant have been developed at its plant in North Carolina, US and were now ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia.

The order is part of a $1 billion contract won by Siemens to supply power plant components to a Saudi consortium comprising Al Arrab Contracting Company and China's Sepco lll Electric Power Construction Corporation.

The main components, including the Heat Recovery Steam Generators for the first two units of the Ras Al-Khair combined cycle power plant (CCPP), formerly called Ras Az Zawr in Saudi are now ready for immediate on-schedule delivery, said a statement from Siemens.

Siemens is supplying a total of twelve gas turbines, five steam turbines, seventeen generators and ten Heat Recovery Steam Generators and the entire electrical and I&C equipment for the Ras Al-Khair CCPP and seawater desalination plant.

With a total of six units and a total installed capacity of 2400M W, the plant will generate power for an aluminum smelting plant and provide around one billion liters of drinking water a day for Riyadh with its five million inhabitants.

The gas turbines were manufactured in the Siemens gas turbine plant in Berlin, with the manufacturing plant in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr supplying the steam turbines.

The Siemens Energy Sector is the world's leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for power generation in thermal power plants and using renewables, power transmission in grids and for the extraction, processing and transport of oil and gas.-TradeArabia News Service

[ariane] 17/1/2012 16:04

Siemens Lighting Unit Osram To Cut Jobs In Germany
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Today : Tuesday 17 January 2012
Osram AG, the lighting unit of Siemens AG (SIE.XE), said Tuesday it plans to cut jobs in Germany to account for the industry's move toward LED technology.

Declining volumes in the traditional lighting business due to rising LED demand and regulatory changes will lead to a reduction of about 850 domestic jobs in this field by 2014, Osram said in a statement, adding that as many as 200 Osram workers may be transferred to Siemens.

An Osram spokesman declined to comment on similar measures the company may implement outside of Germany. Osram employs about 41,000 people worldwide, including about 10,000 in its home country.

Siemens wanted to list a majority Osram stake on the stock exchange last year but postponed that plan due to market volatility. Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said earlier this month that a flotation remains on the agenda but isn't a top priority for the Munich-based conglomerate at the moment.

-By Philipp Grontzki, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

[grupo guitarlumber] 16/1/2012 11:45

Ex - dividend date Jan. 25, 2012

[ariane] 16/1/2012 11:07

Siemens : Crédit Suisse confiant avant les résultats.

(CercleFinance.com) - Crédit Suisse revient sur le dossier Siemens= alors que le conglomérat industriel allemand publiera, au matin du 10 novembre, les résultats de son exercice 2010/2011 clos fin septembre dernier. Les analystes maintiennent leur opinion de 'surperformance' sur la valeur ainsi que leur objectif de cours de 74 euros

[ariane] 16/1/2012 11:05

Jugeant ses perspectives prudentes, Oddo Securities a maintenu son opinion Alléger et son objectif de cours de 67 euros sur la valeur.

[la forge] 10/1/2012 07:52

INTERVIEW: Siemens Warns Earnings Targets Are Very Ambitious
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Today : Tuesday 10 January 2012
German industrial giant Siemens AG (SIE.XE) indicated that its full-year earnings targets may be in danger as the fragility of the global economy chokes investment by its customers.

"Our guidance is very ambitious," its financial chief Joe Kaeser told Wall Street Journal Deutschland in an interview published Tuesday. "It certainly hasn't gotten easier to achieve our goals since we released them. The headwinds have become stronger."

Siemens, whose products span gas turbines, streetcars and pregnancy tests, has repeatedly stated it is facing a number of macroeconomic challenges including the European debt crisis, but Chief Executive Peter Loescher said two months ago he expects sales will rise as much as 5% in fiscal 2012, thanks to a record order backlog.

That figure stood at EUR96 billion on Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year. Siemens also said in November profit from continuing operations will be flat at EUR6 billion when stripping out a EUR1 billion net gain that occurred in 2011 following its exit from the Areva NP nuclear power joint venture.

Kaeser said it will require "tough work" to meet the profit forecast.

"We already said in the summer that the overall economic situation will have an impact on the investment behaviour of our customers," he said. "When our customers invest less, we get fewer new orders." Siemens will feel that in the first and second quarter of the current fiscal year, he added.

The Munich-based conglomerate isn't alone in feeling the investment chill. General Electric Co. (GE), a main rival alongside Dutch firm Royal Philips Electronics NV (PHIA.AE), said last month it plans to counter tough economic conditions in Europe by restructuring some of its operations on the continent.

Siemens expects industrial demand to be slow in the first half of this calendar year due to the European debt crisis which has sapped confidence in financial structures and made banks less willing to grant loans, Kaeser said, but he added that he anticipates a significant rebound in the second half.

Speaking about the global economy, he said that emerging markets as well as the U.S. -- where recent "encouraging" macroeconomic data according to Kaeser indicates growth may pick up -- could prompt a dynamic rebound of the world economy in the second half of 2012.

Kaeser, 54, became Siemens' finance chief in 2006. Before that, he held various management positions at the company, including strategy chief.

Siemens has already warned that profit this year will be hit by extra costs linked to Nokia Siemens Network, or NSN, its loss-making telecommunications equipment joint venture with Finland's Nokia (NOK), and to the restructuring of its healthcare division.

However, Kaeser said in the interview there will also be extra charges related to delays in contracts with cross-border electricity grid operator TenneT to connect offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the power grid. Siemens blamed the delays on a complex approval process.

"We already see considerable extra costs in those projects due to the delays and uncertainty," Kaeser said, referring to Siemens' fiscal first quarter ended in December. He declined to specify the amount.

Kaeser said that Siemens will most likely not book any charges linked to the NSN restructuring in the quarter that ended Dec. 31.

NSN has been struggling to cope with tough competition since it started operations in 2007 and has said it will cut more than a fifth of its 74,000 workforce as it focuses on mobile broadband equipment.

The restructuring of the healthcare business, where sales grew at a sluggish 1% last year, includes a reduction of 6% to 8% of the diagnostics unit's 15,000 staff. Siemens said in November the healthcare revamp will cost EUR300 million, but Kaeser told Wall Street Journal Deutschland the final figure is likely to be lower.

The healthcare division employs about 51,000 people and had sales of EUR12.5 billion in fiscal 2011. Its diagnostics unit expanded thanks to major acquisitions in 2006 and 2007, including the $7 billion purchase of U.S.-based Dade Behring, but hasn't met growth targets. The company wrote down more than EUR1 billion on the unit in 2010.

"Dade Behring had a high valuation at the time of the takeover and was extremely expensive," Kaeser said. The situation remains "absolutely unsatisfactory," he added.

Siemens also postponed its plans to list a stake in its Osram lighting unit on the stock exchange in September, due to market volatility. Kaeser said that an Osram flotation remains on the agenda, but it isn't a top priority.

"The big challenges at the moment are elsewhere," he noted.

The gray clouds, however, have a solid silver lining. The conglomerate had cash and cash equivalents of almost EUR12.5 billion at the end of September, and analysts and investors have urged the company to return some of it to shareholders if there are no acquisitions worth targeting.

"We will see at the end of fiscal 2012 how we manage our liquidity," Kaeser said. "For now, we have to work hard to meet our full-year targets."

-By Philipp Grontzki and Nico Schmidt, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

[waldron] 07/1/2012 14:55

2012-01-24 | First-quarter financial report and analyst call



2012-01-24 | Annual Shareholders' Meeting

[waldron] 05/1/2012 15:21

Jan 24, 2012 | First-quarter financial report and analyst call
Jan 24, 2012 | Annual Shareholders' Meeting

[ariane] 18/9/2011 11:50

source: BBC


18 September 2011 Last updated at 09:36 GMT


German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.

The move is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March, chief executive Peter Loescher said.

He told Spiegel magazine it was the firm's answer to "the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy".

"The chapter for us is closed," he said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations.

A long-planned joint venture with Russian nuclear firm Rosatom would also be cancelled, although Mr Loescher said he would still seek to work with their partner "in other fields".

Siemens was responsible for building all 17 of Germany's existing nuclear power plants, according to industry body, the World Nuclear Association.

Mr Loescher said Siemens would still make components, such as steam turbines, used in the conventional power industry that can also be used in nuclear plants.

He also gave his backing to the German government's planned switch to renewable energy sources, calling it a "project of the century" and claiming Berlin's target of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020 was achievable.

U-turn

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced at the end of May that all of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down by 2022.

Before the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power accounted for 23% of electricity production in Germany.

The German government's decision marked a complete U-turn by the chancellor, who only in September 2010 had announced that the life of existing nuclear plants would be extended by an average of 12 years.

Siemen's move, announced on Sunday, is also a turnaround.

In 2009, the firm withdrew from an eight-year-old nuclear joint venture with French energy firm Areva, because the German firm had ambitions to expand its own competence to build entire nuclear plants.

"In view of global climate change and the increasing power demand worldwide, for us nuclear energy remains an essential part of a sustainable energy mix," Mr Loescher had said at the time.

[ariane] 08/6/2011 11:37

Le mercredi 8 juin 2011, à 12h 05
(CercleFinance.com) - Selon HSBC, les catalyseurs qui à court terme pourraient soutenir le titre du conglomérat allemand Siemens (BSE: SIEMENS.BO - actualité) se font rares. Pour cette raison et bien que leur conseil soit toujours de 'surpondérer' la valeur, l'objectif de cours associé est ramené de 125 à 115 euros, à comparer aux 89 euros environ auxquels se traite l'action en Bourse de Francfort

[waldron] 01/6/2011 17:35

Siemens unveils EUR 2bn Russian railway deal
01 June 2011, 15:48 CET
- filed under: company, rail, sales, Sinara, Siemens, Germany, Russia
(FRANKFURT) - The German industrial group Siemens said Wednesday it will build two billion euros ($2.8 billion) worth of trains for Russia with its local partner Sinara.

A joint venture dubbed Train Technologies is to deliver a total of 240 regional trains under a preliminary deal that has been ratified by Russian officials, a Siemens statement said.

They are to be built in Russia starting in 2013.

Siemens said it estimates investments in the Russian railway system to be worth a total of 300 billion euros in the next 30 years.

[waldron] 04/5/2011 07:41

Siemens Raises Full-Year Net Forecast as Sales Advance, Overhaul Pays Off
By Richard Weiss - May 4, 2011 7:29 AM GMT+0200
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Business ExchangeBuzz up!DiggPrint Email . A Siemens AG employee assembles a component for gas turbine propellers for use in power plants, at the company's factory in Berlin, Germany. Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg

Peter Loescher, chief executive officer of Siemens AG. Photographer: Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg
Siemens AG (SIE), Europe's largest engineering company, said profit and sales this year will rise more than it previously anticipated as customers buy more industrial equipment and a unit overhaul starts to pay off.

Net income from continued operations will rise to at least 7.5 billion euros ($11.1 billion) in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, from a comparable 4.3 billion euros last year, Siemens said today in a statement. The Munich-based company previously predicted an increase of as much as 35 percent. Sales growth will be a "mid-single digit" percentage, from an earlier forecast of "moderate growth."

Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher is accelerating a reorganization as he sells the computer-services division, the source of years of losses, to Atos Origin SA (ATO) of France and prepares the Osram GmbH lighting subsidiary for an initial public offering later this year. Siemens booked a 1.52 billion- euro gain in the second quarter from the sale of a stake in a venture with Areva SA (CEI), the French maker of nuclear plants.

"We've achieved outstanding, broad-based orders growth," Loescher said in the statement.

In the second quarter ended March 31, income from continuing operations more than doubled to 3.17 billion euros, Siemens said today. Sales rose to 17.72 billion euros, from an adjusted 16.52 billion euros, the company said.

Slowing Growth
Siemens said a month ago that growth in the second half will ease and predicted "continued challenges" at some renewable-energy businesses. The operating margin at the subsidiary fell by half in the quarter, Siemens said today.

Order intake in the quarter grew 28 percent to 20.65 billion euros as of March 31. Plant and machinery orders in Germany, Europe's largest economy, increased 32 percent in the three months to March, the country's VDMA machine makers' association said May 3. ABB Ltd. (ABBN) on April 27 said first-quarter profit rose 41 percent on demand for automation equipment.

Siemens labeled businesses with almost 9 billion euros in fiscal 2010 sales as discontinued operations following the plan to sell the computer division and list the lighting subsidiary. Those operations posted a loss of 338 million euros in the quarter, stemming largely from the IT unit. Osram contributed a profit of 87 million euros, Siemens said.

The sale of the stake to Areva helped profit at the fossil power division rise more than sixfold to 2.05 billion euros. Profit at the renewable energy division fell 53 percent to 48 million euros as the company expands its wind energy operations.

At the industry businesses, profit grew 60 percent at industry automation, while earnings declined in the building technologies and mobility divisions. Earnings in health care fell 4 percent in the quarter, Siemens said.

Siemens shares have gained 5.1 percent so far this year, half as much as the advance by ABB Ltd. General Electric Co. (GE) has risen 13 percent this year, while Royal Philips Electronics NV, the largest manufacturer of lighting equipment, has fallen 10 percent since the start of 2011.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at [e-mail].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [e-mail].
.

[waldron] 02/5/2011 14:59

Siemens Profit To Jump On Areva Stake Gain, Strong Order Book
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Today : Monday 2 May 2011
German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) Wednesday is set to report a significant increase in net profit on a one-time gain from the sale of a minority stake in nuclear-power venture Areva NP, while its sales pipeline is set to benefit from the continuing rebound across its business lines.

Siemens earlier this year sold its 34% holding in Areva NP for EUR1.62 billion to France's Areva SA (CEI.FR), which gained full control. The transaction will boost Siemens' profit as the stake was valued at only EUR190 million in the company's books at the end of September, the end of its fiscal year.

As a result, fiscal second-quarter net profit is expected to surge 74% to EUR2.57 billion, according to the average estimate in a Dow Jones poll of analysts.

Siemens decided more than two years ago to quit its engagement in Areva NP and at the time said it planned to form a partnership with Russia's Rosatom instead. Areva objected to the move and initiated arbitration against Siemens, which is still ongoing and will decide whether the value of the 34% stake in Areva NP will be reduced or increased by as much as 40%.

Meanwhile, Siemens already said in early April that business development was "robust" in the period, with order intake expected to come in near the first quarter level of EUR20.8 billion, while revenue should "easily" have reached the December quarter's EUR17.6 billion.

A rebound in demand is expected to lead to a significant increase in second-quarter orders compared with a year earlier. Munich-based Siemens offers a wide range of products, from wind turbines to high-speed trains and medical scanners. Its rivals include General Electric Co. (GE) and ABB Ltd. (ABB), both of which last month gave an upbeat outlook after reporting a jump in quarterly earnings.

"Demand is still recovering," Deutsche Bank analysts Peter Reilly and Martin Wilkie said in a recent note on Siemens, in which they confirmed their buy rating for the stock. "We therefore think profits can continue to grow even if margins are close to peak."

Siemens is also reaping the fruits of cost-cutting measures that Chief Executive Peter Loescher implemented after he took the helm in 2007 to streamline the conglomerate's complex array of businesses. Those moves included the elimination of more than 10,000 jobs while aligning the company's operating units along the three main sectors of industry, energy, and healthcare.

Still, the new structure didn't last long; in March Siemens said it would form another sector focused on infrastructure and cities, that will combine certain activities from the industry and energy sectors. The company also said it plans to float a majority stake in its Osram lighting unit, which competes with Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics NV (PHIA.AE), on the stock exchange later this year.

As a consequence, Osram will be a discontinued operation in Siemens' second-quarter earnings for the first time, as will information technology unit SIS, which Siemens agreed to sell to France's Atos Origin SA (ATO.FR) in December. Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said in April that Siemens will amend its outlook to account for those changes. He also said that growth will probably cool in the second half as the comparison base gets tougher.

Siemens previously forecast profit from continued operations to gain at least 25% to 35% in fiscal 2011, with order intake to rise significantly and sales to grow moderately.

At 1251 Monday, Siemens shares were trading up 0.5% at EUR98.74.

-By Philipp Grontzki, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone], [e-mail]

[ariane] 15/4/2011 17:08

Siemens To Get Major Train Order From Deutsche Bahn - Sources
By Beate Preuschoff

Published April 15, 2011
| Dow Jones Newswires
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FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- German railway operator Deutsche Bahn has called an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board for Thursday to approve a major order from Siemens AG (SI) for long-distance trains, two people close to the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Friday.

Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Ruediger Grube met with Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher Tuesday, one of the people said.

A Siemens spokesman said the company is on a good path but declined to give further details.

Siemens and Deutsche Bahn have spent months negotiating a deal for between 230 and 300 trains, worth between EUR4 billion and EUR6 billion. The contract was originally targeted for conclusion last year.

[grupo guitarlumber] 31/3/2011 09:00

By Jeff St. John at Earth2Tech

Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:31pm EDT

March was already a huge month for smart grid acquisitions, then last week, Schneider Electric announced it would spend $268 million purchasing Summit Energy. It was one of the bigger M&As in the smart grid sector, and also it was a little different. Where most smart grid buys have focused on technology, Schneider's deal was a wholesale dive into the new market of buying and selling energy itself.

That's because Summit already manages $20 billion in annual power purchases for some 650 corporate clients, making it a power broker in its own right. If Schneider succeeds in integrating that market power with its grid and building power control technologies, it could add a whole new level of complexity - and potential - to the concept of the smart grid.

Jeff Drees, president of Schneider's U.S. business, explained the reasoning to me in a Wednesday interview. The idea, he said, is to integrate Schneider's existing strengths in building energy efficiency with Summit's ability to cut the best power deals with customers.

"There's a race to be the true smart grid provider," he said. "We know how to build substations, automate the grid, automate the building, and now we know how to help customers make buying decisions when they go procure." That, in turn, can yield benefits that weren't possible before, he said.

For example, retrofit customers could invest in equipment that allows shedding power load for demand response, then market that load-shedding ability via Summit's services to demand cheaper power supply agreements.

That's a pretty complicated task, but Summit should be up to it, Drees said. "They know every state, deregulated and regulated... they know how to look at real-time pricing for power and gas... and they bring the best real-time agreements to their customers," he said.

Drees expects the combination of Summit's and Schneider's expertise could cut in half the time it takes to return the cost of efficiency investments, from 3 to 4 years today, to less than half that over time. Schneider isn't targeting that kind of improvement right away, however, it will take three to four years of integration and growth to get there, he estimated.

In the meantime, Schneider will face a lot of competition, both on building-side power systems and automation from the likes of Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Siemens, and on the utility side of the smart grid via its acquisition of Areva's distribution business, where it faces contemporaries like Siemens, Alstom, General Electric and ABB.

All these players are busy acquiring their own pieces of the smart grid puzzle as well. This month saw two innovative players in the demand response software space get bought up: EnergyConnect by Johnson Controls and UISOL by Alstom. On the smart buildings side, IBM bought real estate energy and sustainability software provider Tririga.

Since the start of the year, we've also seen ABB acquire Obvient Strategies, which makes smart grid business intelligence software, and U.S. demand response leader EnerNOC snap up M2M Communications, which makes technology for the agricultural and water demand response markets. Schneider hasn't been left out of the technology race; in December, it bought French software startups Vizelia and D5X.

Another interesting competitor to Schneider's plans for Summit might come from Constellation Energy, the big energy company that bought demand response provider CPower last year. Earlier this year, Constellation launched its VirtuWatt platform for giving its own customers an interface between their own demand response systems - the technology that turns power use off and on to shave peak grid loads - and the markets that determine how much customers get paid for that service.

In the future, however, Constellation says it hopes to use VirtuWatt to help its customers better plan power purchases from Constellation itself. That ability could expand the concept of load-shedding from something you do to earn a payment from a demand response program to something you do to play energy markets on an hour-to-hour basis.

Image courtesy of Tulane Publications via Creative Commons license

[waldron] 10/3/2011 12:30

France Shifts Stance to Allow German Trains Into Channel Tunnel
By Laurence Frost - Mar 9, 2011 10:46 AM GMT+0100 Tweet inShare.1More
Business ExchangeBuzz up!DiggPrint Email . Deutsche Bahn aims to introduce trains to Amsterdam, Cologne and Frankfurt from London starting in 2013. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The French government said it won't bar Siemens AG (SIE) trains from the Channel Tunnel if Europe's rail- safety agency backs their introduction, a shift that should clear the way for Deutsche Bahn AG to begin services to London.

France will respect the European Railway Agency's advice on operations planned by the German state railway using a variant of Siemens's InterCityExpress train, said a government official who declined to be identified, citing official policy.

The ICE has motors in each car, a system outlawed under current rules because of a perceived fire risk. Former Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau, replaced by Thierry Mariani late in 2010, had said an order for the trains from incumbent tunnel operator Eurostar Group Ltd. should be dropped for that reason.

While a Franco-British Intergovernmental Commission has the final say on any rule change, it's likely to follow the European agency's recommendations, the French official said. Deutsche Bahn and Groupe Eurotunnel SA (GET), which operates the 30-mile (48- kilometer) subsea link, carried out tests and evacuation drills in October to support an application for safety approval.

Eurotunnel is counting on new entrants to lift traffic and revenue through the tunnel by adding routes to the current Eurostar services linking London with Paris and Brussels.

Amsterdam, Frankfurt
Deutsche Bahn aims to introduce trains to Amsterdam, Cologne and Frankfurt from London starting in 2013. Eurostar plans to add the same cities a year later, it said in October after announcing a 700 million-pound ($1.1 billion) fleet upgrade that included a 10-train Siemens order.

"That order still stands and the contracts have been signed," Eurostar spokesman Leigh Calder said yesterday by telephone, welcoming the French government's revised stance. "It's good news that they will respect and abide by the European agency's recommendations."

Eurostar, controlled by French state rail operator SNCF, chose the ICE in preference to proposals from Paris-based Alstom SA (ALO), which had also used so-called distributed traction rather than the current system of a locomotive at either end.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at [e-mail]
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