Enlarge imageMUNICH (Reuters) - German industrial conglomerate Siemens
Of that figure, 6 billion euros would come from green technology contracts, "significantly" increasing revenues from the company's environmental portfolio in the future.
Nonetheless, Siemens still expected business to weaken in the third and fourth quarters of the current fiscal year, Chief Executive Peter Loescher told journalists on Monday.
"That's because we expect these stimulus programmes to have a stabilising effect on our business - and then on our new orders -- next year at the earliest," he added.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Shares of Siemens were down 1.1 percent at 50.12 euros at 0912 GMT (10:12 a.m. British time), while the German blue-chip index <.GDAXI> eased 1.3 percent.
Siemens, which makes trains and turbines as well as hearing aids and light bulbs, is a bellweather of Germany's economy, the largest in the euro zone.
Loescher said the decline in global economic growth appeared to be slowing down, although experts now expect the economy to contract more than was forecast in April.
"Therefore we can realistically hope that we're now approaching the low point. However, it is still very difficult to predict how long the economy will remain at this depressed level, and when and at what rate of incline it will once again rebound," he added.
CUSHIONING THE DOWNTURN
Siemens Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser told reporters he expects sales from environment-related products and technologies to grow 10 percent annually in the next coming years. Group new orders and sales would not have such a growth rate.
"Regarding the green technology portfolio, it is somewhat vague as the company never precisely defined what belongs to that portfolio," said DZ Bank analyst Karsten Oblinger.
Siemens reiterated it intends to increase revenues from environment-related technologies to 25 billion euros by 2011 compared to some 19 billion in fiscal year to September 2008.
Siemens said of the 2 trillion euros worth of economic stimulus plans around the globe, around 700 billion euros are for infrastructure investments.
The total volume of planned infrastructure expenditures relevant for Siemens comes to around 150 billion euros in the next three fiscal years, Siemens said.
"Against the backdrop of the worst global economic crisis in decades, these government measures are at least partially cushioning, in some cases, sharp declines in private-sector demand. They should also have a stabilizing effect on our business," Loescher said.
Loescher told Focus magazine Siemens is investing 1 billion euros in research and development of environment-related technologies as part of its goal to transform the industrial conglomerate into a big player in green products.
Siemens said it based this forecast on an initial analysis of the largest stimulus programmes.
Loescher said the United States has reserved more than $4 billion of its stimulus programme for improvements to the U.S. power transmission infrastructure and $8 billion for high-speed trains, two areas where he said Siemens is very strong.
