Siemens net marginally down at Rs 333 cr; says green shoots visible

Revenue fell 9.2 per cent to Rs 3,422 crore for the quarter, while new orders grew 8.7 per cent to Rs 3,220 crore. However, the management led by managing director and chief executive Sunil Mathur guided towards better days as more areas of the economy come out of the lockdown restrictions and government orders, a key component of its business, begin to flow into the system.

German technology major Siemens on Wednesday reported a marginal 4.7 per cent fall in net income to Rs 333 crore for the September quarter, due to the lockdown that led to underutilisation and resultant loss of Rs 285 crore. The company follows an October-September financial year and reported a dip in revenue and profit for the full year to September.

Income slipped to Rs 10,179 crore from Rs 13,394 crore, pulling down net income to Rs 765 crore from Rs 1,068. Revenue fell 9.2 per cent to Rs 3,422 crore for the quarter, while new orders grew 8.7 per cent to Rs 3,220 crore.

However, the management led by managing director and chief executive Sunil Mathur guided towards better days as more areas of the economy come out of the lockdown restrictions and government orders, a key component of its business, begin to flow into the system. Also, there is a steady increase in orders from the private sector. It has a strong order backlog of over one year's revenue, partially on account of the lockdown, which resulted in lower revenue. The profit was impacted due to expenses incurred during the lockdown period, amounting to Rs 285 crore.

However, its profit from operations improved from 10 per cent to 11.4 per cent of revenue for the quarter, indicating better margins. "A major part of the year was impacted due to the pandemic. Effectively we lost a quarter of our business. But we managed to close the year better than expected on the bank of many orders from the state government for drinking water and sanitation as well power transmission orders," Mathur told PTI over a call.

He said they will continue to focus on energy, industry, infrastructure and mobility businesses, apart from a new emerging business of data centres, as the lockdown still persists. "We have been getting many enquiries from data centre managers. Going forward, we will extend our focus into this area as well, as energy management and energy efficiency at data centres are very specialised jobs and we are very good at that," he said.

He also expected increased interest in technological and digitalisation solutions across all its businesses, especially in ensuring reliable energy supply and solutions, as homes have become offices since March and which may continue to be so unless an effective vaccine is found. The company also recommended Rs 7 dividend per equity share for the quarter to September.

One of the major orders it completed during the quarter was the Atal Tunnel or the Rohtang Pass tunnel where it had done the entire automation and electrical fittings. On when does he expect the economy to normalise, Mathur said a vaccine holds the key and yet the new normal will be very different from the past normal.

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