Hundreds of jobs could go in the UK as part of a £100m restructuring problem designed to yield annual cost savings of £60m. The programme is designed to lift margins to 15% across the group.

Reports suggest that as well as the 2,000 outright redundancies, another 2,000 staff could be replaced with workers from developing countries.

Siebe plans to close 20 plants in the shake-up. The majority of job cuts will be overseas, although the group gave no indication which plants would be closed.

It operates large sites at Cheshire, Plymouth and High Wycombe in the UK.

The news came as Siebe reported a pre-tax profit of £486m in the year to April, compared to £424m in the previous 12 months. However the figures fell below analysts expectations and the group's shares tumbled 120p to 1383p by 1300 BST (1200 GMT).

Allen Yurko, the group's chief executive, said: "This type of restructuring is nothing new and is a process that we have adopted over the last few years. It is something that we have had to do to stay ahead of the game."

Mr Yurko admitted that Siebe had failed to achieve its self-imposed target of 10% organic growth due to the economic turmoil in Asia and a slowdown in growth in Europe and the US. However Mr Yurko said that he was optimistic that the Asian market had bottomed out and was confident that the group could achieve its sales target this year.

Mr Yurko said the group could comfortably afford to pay £400m to spend on acquisitions in the current financial year.

Over the last few years Siebe has launched a £2bn acquisition spree including the recent £440m acquisition of Eurotherm, the electronic controls group.

Siebe has put several operations including Northern Safety Products and Proner Comatel Electronic Connectors in an effort to improve returns at its troubled industrial equipment division.