Siemens significantly raised its full-year outlook on Wednesday after a strong fiscal first quarter in which orders, revenue and net income exceeded market expectations.
The German conglomerate reported a 39% increase in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), while net income for the October to December period increased from 1.1 billion euros for the same period to 1.5 billion euros ($ 1.81 billion). the previous year.
Orders were up 15% and the company cited a faster-than-expected recovery in China and Germany following the Covid-19 downturn. Siemens now expects net profit for the full fiscal year 2021 of between $ 5 billion and $ 5.5 billion, with updated guidance predicting growth rates in the high single digits for the 12 months to September 2021.
EBITDA of Euro 2.13 billion for the quarter exceeded consensus projections of Euro 1.67 billion prepared by the company and projected on average by analysts polled by Reuters.
“What we see in Asia, and especially of course in China, is that there is a huge demand, especially for those industries or for those end markets that benefit greatly from stay-at-home, such as the gaming industry and the like,” said the outgoing Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on Wednesday.
Kaeser also noted that China’s global export model has also contributed to the demand for lockdown-friendly industries.
“Think of gaming on smartphones and the like and that’s been in the greatest demand, which are very modern industries, so they are highly automated lines and they need a lot of production software in the automation, which is why we’ve benefited a lot in that area. “
However, he suggested that Germany and the rest of Europe would be more of a “catch-up game” than a long-term growth opportunity. Kaeser predicted that the US will be the most likely for the second half of the calendar year and into 2022.