Technology giant Siemens has transferred a 6.8% holding in Siemens Energy to its pension asset manager Siemens Pension-Trust eV. As a result, the German company has cut its stake in Siemens Energy from 31.9% to 25.1%.
Siemens Pension-Trust held a 9.9% stake in Siemens Energy at the time of its spin-off in 2020, but it has meanwhile completely sold the holding, a spokesperson for the company told IPE.
“This is a first concrete and visible step [for the plan sponsor to reduce holdings], and we intend to further cut it, depending on the strategic and operational development, as well as the market environment,” the spokesperson said.
It is not clear yet whether Siemens Energy will decide to transfer further stakes to the Pensionsfonds in the future.
“We had already pointed out in the run-up to the spin-off and also during the listing of Siemens Energy, that Siemens intended to further reduce its stake in Siemens Energy after the listing,” the spokesperson added.
With the transfer of the shares to the Siemens Pension-Trust, Siemens strengthens its pension assets in Germany, the company said.
Siemens Pension-Trust will receive Siemens Energy shares worth €54m, with a value of €850m at the closing price on Wednesday, according to reports.
Siemens in transferring the stake in DAX-listed Siemens Energy to the pension trust as the company’s share price plunged more than 37% last week after it found “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components” at its subsidiary Siemens Gamesa, it said.
The board of Siemens Gamesa started an “extended technical review” to look into the issue, saying that costs will likely increase significantly to more than €1bn to reach the target of quality of certain onshore wind platforms.
The magnitude of the impact of the technical problems has led Siemens Games to withdraw profit assumptions, and consequently the profit guidance for Siemens Energy for fiscal year 2023, it said.
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