Siemens Q4 2020 results

LONDON – Siemens reported net profit of 1.9 billion euros ($ 2.24 billion) for its fourth quarter, up 28% from last year. The increase was driven by the spin-off of Siemens Energy and other income from discontinued operations.

However, Siemens orders and revenues were “heavily impacted” by the negative effects of currency conversion during the same period. The German engineering giant works in several sectors, including energy, healthcare and manufacturing.

Delivering his final results as CEO of the company, Joe Kaeser told CNBC he was “very happy” with the earnings.

“We must not forget that the impact of the currency was significant in the fourth quarter, mainly due to the relationship between the US dollar and the euro, so if you really look at comparable numbers, I believe that an increase of 2% of pre-Covid year-over-year orders isn’t that bad of a thing, ”he told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.

The euro has strengthened against the US dollar in recent months, hitting European exporters such as Siemens.

Orders from Siemens amounted to 15.56 billion euros for the quarter and sales of 15.3 billion euros. On a like-for-like basis, orders increased 2%, but sales declined 3%.

Kaeser said Siemens had weathered the first wave of Covid-19 infections in Europe “reasonably well”. However, he said there was still some uncertainty about how the company would withstand the current second spike in cases in Europe. As such, he said the outlook for 2021 was “cautious.”

Meanwhile, news earlier this week that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was more than 90% effective at preventing infections heightened optimism around the pandemic.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, the question is how long is it going to take until we’re there, ”Kaeser said.

“The jury is out obviously, the uncertainty with the pandemic is great.”