Nuovo CEO e interessanti invece prospettive per Siemens - gz
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By: GZ on Domenica 30 Gennaio 2005 16:26
In Italia il secondo titolo per volume scambiato, specialmente da parte del pubblico e soprattutto al rialzo e' tuttoggi ^STM#^ che continua invece lentamente ad affondare. Il motivo e' si tratta di uno dei peggiori semiconduttori in giro e combatte in un settore dove c'e' molta concorrenza (N.B. a breve termine sembra un buy questa settimana)
Da mesi senti gente che dice: ".. ma a questi livelli io la compro di nuovo... non e' mica possibile che con il Nasdaq che e' rimbalzato di tot... e l'economia che cresce di tot..". Purtroppo ci sono DOZZINE DI SOCIETA' DI SEMICONDUTTORI in concorrenza con STM e sta perdendo terreno verso altre.. gli investitori di borsa dimenticano spesso questo concetto specie in Italia dove di societa' di semiconduttori ne esiste UNA, di telecom una e mezzo, di energetiche una ecc... (forse Pistorio era uno molto simpatico, ma non esattamente il miglior a.d. che si potesse avere...)
Per contrasto nuovo CEO e interessanti prospettive per ^Siemens#^ e non solo nei semiconduttori: sulla carta ha numeri simili a General Electric e costa un 25% di meno ad esempio. Anche come trading a breve (che quasi tutti fanno ancora al rialzo) lo sostituirei a STM (oppure la Thomson in Francia)
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^Revving Up Siemens#http://online.barrons.com/article_print/SB110635883305833114.html^
The incoming CEO streamlined U.S. operations. Now, he takes his skills home to Germany.
By ADAM NAJBERG and JOON KNAPEN
IF YOU GO BY FIRST IMPRESSIONS, Klaus Kleinfeld could be just the guy to unlock the potential that's long lurked in the share price of Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate.
Asked in November by a reporter brandishing a Nokia cellphone how his company could compete with the industry's top-selling brand, Siemens' incoming chief executive grabbed the journalist's handset and dunked it in a glass of mineral water. In Germany's staid business world, this action was rather shocking.
The feisty 47-year-old surely knows, however, that it will take far more than a flair for the dramatic to make Siemens' shares trade in the same stratosphere as those of rivals like America's General Electric.
Equity analysts say that when you drill down into the Munich-based conglomerate's 12 divisions, there's a lot to like: good product range, geographical diversification, solid cross-selling and double-digit margins from power-generation, automation and medical-supply operations.
Under outgoing CEO Heinrich von Pierer, Siemens has lowered costs by trimming 35,000 jobs; it now has 430,000 employees worldwide. As one of Germany's largest employers, it has also set itself up for future savings by radically restructuring its pension program. With little fanfare, Siemens, founded in a Berlin workshop 158 years ago, switched its 164,000 German workers to a defined-contribution pension program, to supplement their state pensions. (They previously had a defined-benefit plan.)
The change implies stunning long-term savings, although the impact won't be felt for some time.
The Bremen-born Kleinfeld, who becomes chief executive at the end of January, turned around Siemens' New York-based U.S. operations with a "can-do" American style of management and clearly focused programs and targets -- plus good, direct communication with his staff. When he arrived, the U.S. unit was operating in the red. Last year, its net profit came to $465 million, fueled by sales of systems to handle everything from airport explosives detection to postal automation. Siemens equipment generates more than one-third of U.S. electricity.
[Pierer]
Outgoing CEO von Pierer has moved "a lot of heavy snow,"…
Most analysts see Siemens' shares rising modestly this year, but bulls like it as a powerful long-term bet.
Sure, there's its dog of a mobile-telephone handset unit, its struggling information-technology-services division and quality problems in its transportation operations. "There are some issues...waiting for an answer," von Pierer acknowledged to Barron's. But he observes: "Kleinfeld is a very efficient man."
Laying off the 15,000 employees of the German cellphone unit alone might cost 900 million euros (about $1.2 billion), plus additional charges for disposal of fixed assets and inventory writedowns, according to an estimate by Credit Suisse First Boston. Shuttering the IT-services division, the investment firm figures, would cost even more because most of its 36,000 employees are in Germany -- meaning severance costs would be hefty. Von Pierer points to the re-introduction of 40-hour work weeks at some facilities as a success that Kleinfeld can build on. And he adds: "I'm convinced we have to accelerate change, not slow it dow
In any case, "a lot of the heavy snow has been shoveled off the sidewalk" already by von Pierer, notes Gunnar Miller, head of European Equity Research at RCM, part of Allianz Global Investors. And von Pierer says that, in his new (nonexecutive) role as head of Siemens' supervisory board, he'll support continued streamlining.
Comments Frank Rothauge, head of technology and telecommunications research at Frankfurt brokerage Sal. Oppenheim: "Five years ago...I didn't have the feeling management had the capability to solve possible problems. I now have positive feelings when they start a project."
The cellphone unit lost €152 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, owing to competitive pressures and slow sales of 65-series handsets (a software glitch didn't help). Von Pierer and his chief financial officer are expected to discuss strategies for the ailing unit at a shareholders meeting Thursday in Munich, but no immediate decisions are expected. CSFB estimates the cellphone division will lose €423 million this year, and €81 million next, including €140 million in expected restructuring charges.
Still, in fiscal 2004 Siemens' net profit jumped 40%, to €3.4 billion. Overall sales crept up 1.3%, to €75.17 billion.
While many analysts would like to see Siemens shed the loss-making division, a more likely scenario is a restructuring that will thin its payroll by a few thousand, getting the unit in shape for outsourcing via a joint venture, along the lines of what Siemens has done with Fujitsu in computers and Bosch in major appliances. CSFB predicts a partnership deal in 2006 or 2007.
Finding a partner will be tough. Margins are poor in the mobile-handset business, and Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson -- a joint venture of Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony -- are entrenched at the top of that market, along with Korea's Samsung and LG. The most likely scenario is a link with a Chinese company. RCM's European technology analyst, Marie Rupp, says it makes strategic sense for Siemens to stay in that market because it's good at selling mobile-network equipment, which "lets them keep a leg in the technology."
Still, maybe it's time for Siemens to abandon low-margin retail markets for good, and focus on its strength -- providing high-margin, value-added products and services to industrial, government and institutional customers. Supplying stadiums, hospitals, airports, utilities and other big customers with lighting systems, power equipment, and IT advice and other services is a lot more profitable than selling cellphones to consumers.
Siemens' IT-services unit provides another challenge; its revenue slid 9%, to €4.72 billion last year. Competition for IT services is particularly fierce in Germany, where the unit, called Siemens Business Services, has nearly half its contracts, making pricing and margins unattractive. "Siemens Business Services hasn't made money for the past five years. This in-house IT servicing...they need to get rid of it. Market rumors are, they're trying to find a buyer for that," says James Stettler, a London-based analyst for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Decisions on both units probably will be announced soon, and Siemens' communications chief, Eberhard Posner, pooh-poohs the idea of any loss-making division being sacrosanct for technological, philosophical or geographical reasons.
At Siemens' Transportation Services division, quality issues are being dealt with, after the recall of defective streetcars cost the company over $550 million in the last fiscal year.
[chart]
In some respects, Siemens has gotten a bum rap from investors. Partly, this is because the company is treated as a proxy for the German economy, which has been rather weak in recent years. Also, industry analysts regularly favor other companies in the sector, be they German outfits like Schneider Electric or America's GE.
Why?
Poor communications with the markets is surely a factor, observes RCM's Rupp. That's where Kleinfeld, the new CEO -- who likes to press the flesh -- could make a decisive difference (although he won't give interviews until after his first 100 days on the job). Communication with U.S. investors is key.
The message? Siemens, until now perceived as representing Germany Inc., is a global company that's about innovation -- and generates 77% of its sales abroad, including 18% from the U.S.
Although the two conglomerates don't compete head-to-head in many areas, any discussion of Siemens usually leads to a comparison with General Electric.
Friday, GE reported 2004 earnings of $16.6 billion, or $1.59 a share -- up 3% from 2003's level -- on $134 billion in revenue. Based on those numbers and its late-week stock price of 36.02, the company boasts a price-earnings multiple around 23. The P/E on expected 2005 earnings, assuming they rise 10%, is about 20.5.
At their recent quote of 79, Siemens American depositary receipts were selling at 15 times their expected 2005 earnings of $5.39 a share. (Each ADR equals one Frankfurt-traded share.)
General Electric's profit margin is around 11%, versus about 5% for Siemens. (For more on GE, see The Trader, page MW3.) Perhaps most important, GE is doing more with less. Siemens' global work force is about 40% bigger than GE's.
One big difference between General Electric and Siemens: More than half the U.S. company's revenues and profits come from financial operations. The rest are in areas, such as medical equipment and lighting, in which both companies are premier competitors. Our roots "are electric and electronic," von Pierer observes.
Over the past five years, RCM's Rupp says, GE's return on equity has been stuck around 18%, "while Siemens' return has climbed a lot and is still climbing." Siemens' ROE now is estimated at 13.5%.
Based on all this, does GE deserve to trade at a 37% premium to Siemens? Yes. But bulls on the stocks would argue that both are undervalued.
The best news for investors: Kleinfeld has a real shot at improving Siemens' efficiency and market share in some areas. Some of the money in Siemens' coffers -- and the company has over €10 billion in cash -- likely will go for acquisitions. A current target: VA Technologie, an Austrian electrical-engineering firm. Siemens owns 16.7% of its shares. On Thursday, it raised its bid to €65 a share (from €55), hoping to overcome opposition from VA unions and reluctant shareholders.
But Siemens has a number of homegrown successes, particularly in medical equipment and in automation systems. The German giant offers highly advanced radiation-therapy machines, and says its cutting-edge Dematic processing system handles more than 90% of U.S. Postal Service mail. Its fire-safety and other building-automation and security-monitoring systems are in 20,000 North American facilities. (One of its more noteworthy customers is Houston's Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans.)
If Kleinfeld can communicate with investors better than his predecessor -- and especially if he can convince them that he's serious about removing dead wood -- he also might be able to wipe out at least part of the dreaded "German conglomerate discount" that has hurt Siemens shares.
That discount is based on the theory that conglomerates, especially European ones, are so loosely run that they often neglect to cull poorly performing units. CSFB assumes that Siemens' stock price includes a 10% conglomerate discount.
Using a sum-of-the-parts valuation method, CSFB puts Siemens' fair value at €78 a share -- more than 25% above its recent €61. A price of €78 for the Frankfurt-traded stock translates into about $101 for the American depositary receipt.
While the stock isn't likely to surge, it should be able to climb gradually if Kleinfeld proves to be as effective as many industry analysts expect. Even without him, the trend for Siemens investors has been favorable. Since mid-1999, the stock has climbed 22%, while GE shares have dipped a bit.
Kleinfeld could do a lot for the share price through fatter dividends and share buybacks, investors and analysts say. With more than €10 billion in its war chest, that's something Siemens could well afford to do. The ADRs already carry a dividend of $1.28, producing a yield around 2%. (GE's payout of 88 cents a share produces a yield close to 2.5%.)
For fiscal 2004, Siemens pumped up its dividend to €1.25 a share, from €1.10 a year earlier. And some investors expect the payout to hit €1.50 to €1.60 in the current fiscal year. Siemens should have ample funds to fuel a stock buyback -- even if it makes acquisitions beyond VA -- which some analysts believe Kleinfeld might announce later in 2005.
Of course, much depends on the decisions the brass makes about the IT-service and cellphone units, clues to which should emerge at Thursday's meeting. Von Pierer has pointed the company in the right direction. If his successor follows that lead, Siemens investors eventually could be as happy as Jack Welch's were in the 1990s when he was running General Electric.