Siemens Plan Is Cheered By Investors -- WSJ
May 09 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
Shares climb as firm aims to boost profit by spinning off
troubled power unit
By Ruth Bender
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 9, 2019).
BERLIN -- Siemens AG shares rose sharply, a day after it
disclosed plans to spin off its struggling gas and power business
-- part of a broader shake-up that people familiar with the
company's thinking say has been triggered in part by worry over
activist investors.
The move also comes as Siemens executives watch its longtime
American rival General Electric Co. contend with a series of
crises, including an attempt to turn around its own power
business.
Investors sent Siemens' stock up more than 4%, after Siemens
late Tuesday said it would combine the unit that includes its gas
turbines business with its renewable-energy activities and spin off
the resulting entity. It is the company's most dramatic overhaul
since it exited the telecommunications business in 2006.
"This is a transformation of our company's DNA...it wasn't
easy," the Siemens' CEO Joe Kaeser said Wednesday, presenting a set
of second-quarter earnings that trumped analyst expectations,
further boosting the stock.
The idea of shedding the power and gas business -- long a core
business steeped in Siemens' history as a German industrial
conglomerate -- seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. But Mr.
Kaeser has pushed to show he and his fellow directors are ready to
reshape Siemens into a simpler and more profitable company.
The move also represents the first time in a recent series of
spinoffs initiated by Mr. Kaeser where Siemens clearly stated that
it doesn't intend to retain a majority stake in the resulting
business.
Mr. Kaeser's approach has ruffled political feathers in Germany
and drawn workforce criticism in the tradition-minded country.
Works-council representatives on Siemens' supervisory board backed
the latest move, but also warned that Siemens had a responsibility
to retain jobs and retrain people for new jobs.
Siemens said it plans to create 20,500 new jobs in areas from
electric mobility to industrial automation, partially offsetting
some 10,400 cuts in other areas. Mr. Kaeser said repeatedly
Wednesday that the company remained committed to its employees and
creating jobs.
People familiar with Siemens' strategy say the company feared
aggressive, outside investors would end up agitating for a breakup
if the company failed to further simplify or find a solution to
improve profits at the power business. Activists investors,
including a handful from the U.S. have swept across Europe, pushing
boardroom change in companies like French drinks maker Pernod
Ricard SA and German steel-to-elevator conglomerate Thyssenkrupp
AG. Mr. Kaeser said the carve-out and planned listing of the new
energy company didn't preclude other strategic options in the
future, such as partnerships with rivals.
GE, too, was taken off guard by slumping demand in its power
business, contributing to a deep crisis at the U.S. rival. For
years, Siemens' managers lived in GE's shadow. The American company
long enjoyed a larger market value. After GE's long share price
slump, Siemens's market cap is now slightly larger than GE's.
In spinning off the power business, Siemens is taking a
different tack than GE, which is in the midst of a major overhaul
prioritizing that division.
"We know that some competitors and rival CEOs had to experience
what happens when you run out of options," Mr. Kaeser told
reporters Tuesday, not mentioning GE by name. "We wanted to remain
proactive and anticipate the transformation," Mr. Kaeser said.
Siemens, whose activities once stretched from mobile phones to
lightbulbs, has been facing calls from investors to extract more
value from its different businesses for years.
Under Mr. Kaeser, Siemens spun off its renewable-energy business
Gamesa, carved-out and listed its still majority-owned medical
equipment unit Siemens Healthineers and reshuffled its remaining
business units in a plan launched last summer. But many analysts
have called for more.
"We have been arguing for some time that Siemens should and
would become simpler," said Jefferies analyst Peter Reilly. "We
regard this as a major step in the right direction."
JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said the move could reduce
Siemens' "conglomerate discount" over time and that the company's
future industrial focus on digital industries should attract
long-term investors to the stock.
Mr. Kaeser said it was crucial for Siemens to take the time to
complete its restructuring, which saw it consolidate its five
industrial business units into three: power turbines and gas;
manufacturing software and automation; and infrastructure in a
digital world. After the spinoff Siemens will be left with the
latter two, centered on connecting factories and urban
infrastructure to the internet.
Write to Ruth Bender at Ruth.Bender@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 09, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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