Siemens raises dividend
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Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, raised its dividend for the first time in four years on Thursday after reporting profit up 63 percent for the fiscal year 2010 and expecting further growth in fiscal year 2011.
Siemens had a profit of 4.1 billion euros (5.6 billion dollars) for the year ended Sept. 30, an increase of 63 percent from 2009, although Siemens reported a net loss of 467 million euros for the fiscal fourth quarter. It attributed the profit increase in the year to its renewable energy unit and its operations in emerging market countries.
The German engineering company would pay a dividend of 2.70 euros, up from the 1.60 euros per share it had paid out to shareholders annually for the last three years, as part of a new corporate policy of returning more profit to shareholders.
According to analysts' calculation, the move would raise Siemens' dividend yield to 3.3 percent. The Siemens's current yield is 2.2 percent, below 3.1 percent average of the sector average.
The dividend policy is a component of a new target system, which sets out growth and capital-efficiency goals. Siemens said it planned to concentrate on innovation-driven markets like environmental technology, high-growth emerging countries and the service business.
For fiscal 2011 started Oct. 1, Siemens expected substantial order intake and moderate revenue growth between 1 and 4 percent. Siemens forecast its income from continued operations to exceed 2010's level of 4.11 billion euros by 25 percent to 35 percent.
Siemens Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher said the company was coming out of the economic downturn with full momentum and continued with the positive momentum to the next year.
The dividend was a strong signal of the company's confidence that the company would pull ahead of rivals and increase its presence in emerging markets, Loescher added.
