Siemens, one of Europe’s largest traditional technology firms, saw its net income double in the second quarter to €1.2bn, compared with €568m last year, despite sales dropping 2pc on the year.
The company warned that the net income was influenced by a pre-tax gain of €590m on the sale of shares of Infineon Technologies AG, a goodwill impairment of €433m related to Siemens Dematic and a reversal of €246m in deferred tax liabilities as a result of the Infineon share sale. Without these, net income would have been €807m, up 42pc year over year.
Group profit from operations was €1bn, level with the previous year, despite a loss of €289m in the company’s transportation systems business due to significant charges in its rolling stock business.
Technology orders of €19.7bn were up 3pc and sales of €17.7bn were down 2pc compared with a year ago.
Net cash from operating and investment activities rose to €3.5bn, including €1.7bn in net proceeds from the sale of Infineon shares.
Siemens’ CEO Heinrich Pierer commented: “We progressed well in the groups and largely hit our earnings targets. The same goes for sales and orders, in a still challenging macroeconomic environment. This shows we have moved further along the right path toward achieving our operational goals.”
By John Kennedy