Siemens upbeat despite downturn

Siemens CEO Peter Loscher expects new challenges in 2009

German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG has posted a 46% increase in annual net profits despite the economic gloom.

Siemens said its year-on-year profits climbed to 5.9bn euros ($7.4bn; £4.9bn), against 4bn euros last year.

Fourth-quarter profits were down 74m euros after Siemens earmarked about 1bn euros to settle any costs related to a bribery investigation.

It said fourth-quarter figures were also affected by a one-off 1.1bn euros restructuring loss.

Siemens said it had no reason to change its sales forecast for next year as its new orders rose 4% in the fourth quarter.

Cautious outlook

"It has become clearly more ambitious to reach our income guidance for fiscal 2009. But we stick to it," Siemens chief executive Peter Loscher said.

He added that Siemens expected to confront new challenges, but also to increase its market share, thanks to its "relative strength".

The company said that a key source of confidence was the fact that it had a backlog of orders worth 85bn euros.

However, it noted that its outlook for next financial year did not take into account any costs related to legal and regulatory matters.

A number of ex-Siemens staff are being investigated over allegations that they paid bribes to secure telecoms deals.

Siemens agreed in October last year to pay a fine of 210m euros to settle some German legal proceedings.