The biggest European engineering company – Siemens AG reported that its fourth-quarter profit rose by 28% and announced it will sell its hearing-aid business assets at the price of €2.2 billion ($2.7 billion).
The Chief Executive Officer of Siemens – Mr. Joe Kaeser said in a statement: “We delivered the results we originally promised for fiscal 2014 and made substantial progress in strengthening our portfolio.” As reported by the Financial Times, Mr. Kaeser also shared: “We are lagging behind in growth and we must improve here.”
Siemens announced that its so-called sector profit increased to €2.2 billion over the fourth quarter of the fiscal quarter, slightly behind analysts forecasts of €2.24 billion. The company also shared that its revenue amounted to €20.6 billion. Net profit for the quarter ended September 30th increased from €1.01 billion a year ago to €1.45 billion. The result was largely in line with forecasts for €1.49 billion.
The Germany-based engineering company also shared that it intends to sell its hearing-aid unit called Audiology Solutions to private-equity firm EQT Partners and Santo Holding. The transaction is estimated at €2.15 billion ($2.68 billion). EQT will purchase a majority stake in the business, while Siemens will keep a preferred-equity investment amounting to €200 million in the unit.
As Siemens reported, its hearing-aid division posted a revenue of €693 million for 2014. Siemens had unveiled its intentions to publicly list the company in May this year, something which EQT will prepare it for. The information was released after the Germany-based company reported that its net profit increased by 44% over the fourth fiscal quarter thanks to strong growth in its industry business.
Siemens AG added 0.44% to trade at €89.47 per share at 12:03 GMT in Frankfurt, marking a one year change of -3.31%. The company is valued at €78.48 billion. According to the Financial Times, the 27 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Siemens AG have a median target of €104.00, with a high estimate of €135.00 and a low estimate of €85.00. The median estimate represents a 16.75% increase from the previous close of €89.08.
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