Siemens AG posts 13% profit drop

Industrial giant Siemens AG, whose products range from light bulbs to power turbines, on Thursday reported a 13 percent profit drop for its latest quarter as earnings fell at its key power generation division.The Munich-based company said it earned euro632 million ($720 million) for its third fiscal quarter ended June 30, compared to euro725 million a year earlier. That beat the average estimate of earnings of euro424 million ($483 million) among 15 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.Sales fell 15 percent to euro17.4 billion ($19.6 billion) from a year ago.Earnings before interest and taxes fell sharply at the division that makes big-ticket power generators, an earnings mainstay in recent quarters during a boom in orders for gas turbines in the United States. Demand is now waning.The power generation division earned to euro279 million ($318 million), down from euro476 million in the year-earlier quarter. Sales at the division fell to euro1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) from euro2.4 billion.Still, the earnings were better than the roughly euro150 million analysts had expected.For the first nine months of the year, earnings fell to euro1.72 billion ($1.95 billion) from euro2.54 billion a year ago.The company's shares rose 3.7 percent to euro49.10 ($55.93) in trading Thursday on the Frankfurt exchange.Siemens, which has 417,000 employees worldwide, also has businesses in mobile phone handsets and network equipment, fixed-line phone infrastructure and medical equipment.Source: PCBnewsline