Siemens' new chief executive Joe Kaeser faces pressure from shareholders to give a flavour of how he plans to reinvent the industrial giant to catch up with more profitable rivals when he presents annual results next week. After profit warnings and a boardroom bust-up led to his predecessor Peter Loescher's ouster in July, Kaeser said he would put the builder of products ranging from gas turbines to high-speed trains and ultrasound machines back on an "even keel"
But Kaeser is likely to keep investors waiting until second-quarter results in May before he sets out a detailed strategy, a person familiar with Siemens' plans told Reuters. First he will concentrate on building his new team and meeting managers and major shareholders around the world, the person said.
Siemens, Germany's second-largest company by market value, has so far declined to say when Kaeser will reveal his plans. "It would be nice if we got a little taste (on November 7) of where Kaeser wants to go strategically," said Christoph Niesel, a fund manager at Union Investment, which holds about 1 percent of shares in Siemens. "Maybe Kaeser could tell us at least what he doesn't think is going so well right now and thereby give us hope that something will change," Niesel said.
Siemens has fallen behind more profitable rivals such as Switzerland's ABB and US-based General Electric in recent years due to a focus on sales growth as well as poor project management that resulted in a series of one-off charges. So far, Kaeser has made only vague references to wanting the 166-year-old group - a lumbering conglomerate with 78 billion euros ($105 billion) of annual sales - to return to its roots of "electrification".
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