Siemens Energy Shares Fall After Reports of General Electric Lawsuit -- Update
January 15 2021 - 9:49AM
Dow Jones News
-Siemens Energy shares fell following media reports that General
Electric filed a lawsuit against the company
-The German energy player is accused of allegedly using stolen
trade secrets that allowed it to win lucrative contracts
-Siemens Energy said it hasn't been served with the lawsuit
yet
By Giulia Petroni
Siemens Energy AG's shares fell on Friday after reports that
General Electric Co. accused the German energy company of allegedly
using stolen trade secrets that allowed it to win lucrative
contracts for gas turbines.
The Boston-based company filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court on
Thursday, alleging Siemens Energy's U.S. unit improperly received
confidential information in May 2019 and only alerted GE months
later, according to media reports.
At 1412 GMT, Siemens Energy shares trade 7.1% lower at
EUR30.36.
Siemens Energy said in a statement that it hasn't been served
with the lawsuit yet and has learned of it through media
reports.
The company added that it identified the use of competitive
information through its own compliance processes and disclosed the
findings of an internal investigation to the relevant parties.
Siemens Energy also said it implemented measures in response,
including the removal of the confidential information from all of
its systems and the restriction of employees who received the
information from working on similar bids or proposals.
A spokesperson for General Electric said in a statement that the
company has no further comments at this time as the litigation is
ongoing.
Analysts at Citi say the potential amounts for lawsuits of this
kind can be substantial but such cases could take years before
reaching a conclusion.
"A very negative scenario of $1 billion in damages awarded would
equate to a hit of around EUR1.1 a share to Siemens Energy, or
around 3%, setting aside second-order effects," the bank says,
adding this should be seen in the context of the over 50% increase
in Siemens Energy's share price in the past three months.
Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 15, 2021 09:34 ET (14:34 GMT)
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