By John Revill
ZURICH (Reuters) -Siemens reported weaker industrial profit slightly below analyst forecasts during its fourth quarter on Thursday after the engineering company unveiled plans to reduce its stake in Siemens Healthineers.
Siemens, whose products span industrial software to trains, said industrial profit rose 2% to 3.19 billion euros ($3.72 billion) in the three months to the end of September, short of forecasts for 3.32 billion euros in a company gathered consensus.
Sales rose 3% to 21.43 billion euros, in line with forecasts, while net income of 1.84 billion missed forecasts for 2.18 billion euros.
The results came after Siemens late on Wednesday said it would reduce its stake in Siemens Healthineers from 67% to 37% by transferring shares in the medical equipment maker to its investors.
Investors had wanted Siemens to reduce the stake in Siemens Healthineers to concentrate more on industrial and building automation.
CEO Roland Busch said its recent acquisitions of Altair and Dotmatics Siemens was expanding its leadership in artificial intelligence and software.
“With our ONE Tech Company programme, we are laying the foundation for even stronger customer focus, faster innovations and higher profitable growth,” Busch said in a statement.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Mark Potter)
