- Decision on the retirement of 31 million treasury shares
Today, Siemens has started the share buyback announced on November 12, 2015 and plans to buy back shares in an amount of up to €3 billion euro until November 15, 2018 at the latest. In addition, 31 million treasury shares will be retired. This will reduce the capital stock of 881 million to 850 million shares. "With this new share buyback we ensure that our shareholders, in addition to our attractive dividend, will participate continuously in the success of the company," says CFO Ralf P. Thomas.
- Stephan Heimbach leaves the company
A change is ahead in the management of the global communications at Siemens. The current head of Communications and Government Affairs, Stephan Heimbach, will be stepping down from this function as of March 1, 2016. He will remain available to the CEO of Siemens AG, Joe Kaeser, in an advisory capacity on a transitional basis.
- 24 young Europeans in the pilot project Europeans@Siemens have successfully completed their work-study training at the Berlin location
- All the graduates have job offers at Siemens in their home countries
The first students to participate in the pilot project Europeans@Siemens have now successfully completed their training in Berlin and are starting their professional careers. In the fall of 2012, the young Europeans were sent to Berlin by the Siemens Regional Companies in their home countries to train as electronics or mechatronics engineers. The 24 young people from 12 European countries will now be awarded their diplomas in a ceremony at Siemens' Berlin location.
Siemens held its Annual Shareholders' Meeting at the Olympia Hall in Munich on January 26, 2016. The topics of the Siemens Annual Shareholders' Meeting are available here. Please find below the opening and the speeches of Dr. Gerhard Cromme, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and Joe Kaeser, CEO, press pictures of the event and a best-of-video of the press conference and Annual Shareholder's Meeting.
We released our first quarter results for fiscal 2016 on January 25, 2016. The press conference was broadcast live.
- Acts of Managing and Supervisory Boards ratified with large majorities
- Dividend proposal of €3.50 per share approved
- Shareholders endorse spin-off and transfer agreement between Siemens AG and Siemens Healthcare GmbH of December 2, 2015
At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Siemens AG in Munich, company shareholders approved the early reelection of Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, Jim Hagemann Snabe and Werner Wenning to additional five-year terms on Siemens' Supervisory Board. This step is intended to ensure continuity – with a view to the long-term, successful implementation of the company's Vision 2020 strategy – beyond the regular election of shareholder representatives to the Supervisory Board in January 2018.
- Major contract wins in Europe and Africa drive first-quarter orders up 27% year-over-year, at €22.8 billion; revenue 8% higher at €18.9 billion, for a book-to-bill ratio of 1.21
- Excluding currency translation effects, orders 22% higher and revenue up 4%
- Industrial Business profit climbs 10% year-over-year, to €2.0 billion, including margin expansion; strong increases in Healthcare, Energy Management and Mobility more than offset declines in Digital Factory, Process Industries and Drives and Wind Power and Renewables
- Net income of €1.6 billion, up 42% from the prior-year quarter which was burdened by factors outside the Industrial Business; basic earnings per share (EPS) of €1.89 compared to €1.30 in Q1 FY 2015
- We raise our previous expectation for basic EPS from net income in the range of €5.90 to €6.20 to the range of €6.00 to €6.40
"We delivered a strong quarter and are well underway in executing our Vision 2020. Therefore, we will raise our earnings outlook for 2016, even though the macroeconomic and geopolitical developments remain a concern for our markets. We continue to focus on addressing our structural challenges in the company and invest into further developing our markets and strengthening our innovation power."
Siemens announced today that it has started a 15-year technical support and spare parts supply agreement with the U.S. passenger rail operator Amtrak for its 70 new Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotives in operation on the Northeast Corridor. This is Siemens' largest technical support contract for passenger locomotives to-date in the U.S. In 2010, Amtrak ordered 70 Amtrak Cities Sprinter electric locomotives from Siemens. The first locomotives are already in passenger service.
In response to partly misleading media reports ‒ most recently in the Mittelbayrische Zeitung under the headline "Siemens knew" ‒ regarding the involvement of Siemens in the planned strategic realignment of Osram AG, Siemens comments as follows:
- Three shareholder representatives proposed for early re-election
The Supervisory Board of Siemens AG wants to ensure continuity in the long-term, successful implementation of the company's Vision 2020 strategy beyond the next regular re-election of shareholder representatives to the Supervisory Board in January 2018. Based on the Nominating Committee's recommendation, the Supervisory Board has therefore decided to propose to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Siemens AG on January 26, 2016 the early reelection of Dr. Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, Jim Hagemann Snabe and Werner Wenning for terms extending until the Annual Shareholders' Meeting in 2021 in order to ensure their continued participation in the Supervisory Board beyond 2018.