Power technology group Siemens Energy was in the black in the first quarter thanks to special effects. The company announced on Wednesday that the sale of shareholdings in particular had led to the Group achieving a profit after tax of 1.6 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 (as at the end of September). In the same period of the previous year, Siemens Energy had posted a loss of €598 million. The Spanish wind turbine subsidiary Siemens Gamesa, which is struggling with quality deficiencies, again had a strong negative impact on the result, although its losses of 434 million euros were only almost half as high as a year earlier. Siemens Energy had already presented a series of preliminary figures in January and confirmed its forecast.

"We are continuing to focus on solving the quality problems in our onshore wind business and exploiting the growth potential for the rest of the company," emphasized CEO Christian Bruch. In doing so, he can draw on an order backlog that is higher than ever before at 118 billion euros. However, the manager expects Gamesa to post a loss before special items of around two billion euros in 2024.

Siemens Energy has been struggling with high losses at Gamesa for years. The wind energy business with onshore turbines is struggling with quality deficiencies. The business with turbines for operation on the high seas (offshore) has start-up problems in new plants. Bruch and Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt want to reduce the subsidiary's costs by around 400 million euros by the 2026 financial year and reach the break-even point in the wind business.

The Group confirmed the forecasts for 2024. Accordingly, the Management Board expects comparable growth in sales revenue (excluding currency translation and portfolio effects) in a range of three to seven percent and an earnings margin before special items of between minus two and plus one percent. In addition, the management anticipates a profit after tax of up to one billion euros.

(Report by Tom Käckenhoff, Christoph Steitz; edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)