After a difficult but successful year, Siemens is entering the next one full of confidence. Although one-off effects depressed profits in the fiscal year ended September, the Group expects a strong increase in the new year, as announced in Munich on November 17. The core business is booming and Siemens is now planning much larger next steps by selling or spinning off the parts that do not belong to it.

Siemens has been working on spinning off its large drives business (LDA) for some time now. On Thursday, CEO Roland Busch announced that the spin-off will be around twice as large. LDA is to be combined with low-voltage and geared motors from the Motion Control division, the production technology subsidiary Sykatec and the specialty business Weiss Spindle Technology.

Overall, a new unit with a turnover of around 3 billion euros and 14,000 employees is to be created in the course of the financial year. "The new company will be extremely competitive," said Busch with conviction. CFO Ralf Thomas emphasized: "The fact that it is not a core Siemens business does not mean that it is not a good business."

In view of the expansion, however, Thomas probably does not expect the deal to be completed in the current financial year. But that is not necessary, he emphasized. There is no time pressure. According to Thomas, it has not yet been decided whether the spin-off will end in a sale, an IPO or something else. All options are being kept open.

The trade union secretary responsible for Siemens at IG Metall, Hagen Reimer, notes: "We are still extremely skeptical about the spin-off itself." However, if it cannot be prevented, "then we consider it to be the most favorable prospect in its current expanded form. This way, the future company is the most stable and broadly positioned."

Basically, things are going well at Siemens: the result in the central industrial business was at a record level in the past fiscal year. The fact that consolidated net profit nevertheless fell by 34% to €4.4 billion was mainly due to a billion-euro write-down on the remaining shares in the former energy business Siemens Energy, which was floated on the stock exchange, in the summer. This had resulted in the Group's first quarterly loss for more than a decade.

The withdrawal from Russia also had a negative impact on business. Nevertheless, nominal sales increased by just under 16% to 72 billion euros. The order backlog grew to a record 102 billion.

Siemens CEO Busch spoke of an "extremely challenging year" and an "outstanding performance". Siemens had gained market share and the high demand for the Group's hardware and software offerings continued, he emphasized.

In the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, all was well again at Siemens with an impressive profit of 2.9 billion euros. However, a significant profit from the sale of the postal and parcel business also contributed to this.

Siemens expects a significant increase in profit for the current fiscal year. Adjusted for certain purchase price effects, it should rise to between €8.70 and €9.20 per share. That would be an increase of 59 to 68%. Roughly calculated, this would mean a total of around 7.2 billion euros for the Group.

Shareholders will not feel the effects of last year's fall in profits: the dividend is set to rise by 25 cents to 4.25 euros per share. The stock market reacted very positively to the news from Siemens on Thursday: the share was by far the biggest winner in the leading Dax index in the morning.