Mumbai: Siemens has recommended a dividend of 40 per cent for the financial year ended 30 September 2001. Addressing a press conference, Siemens managing director J. Schubert announced that the companys sales turnover increased by 4 per cent to Rs 11,572 million as compared to Rs 11,157 million in the previous year.

The major contributors to the turnover were the power transmission and distribution division, automation and drives division, and the medical solutions division.

The company posted a steady performance with profit before tax increasing by 2 per cent Rs 964 million. The profit after tax was Rs 687 million as against Rs 840 million in the previous year. This was because of high incidence of tax, Mr. Schubert said.

He said Siemens received new orders worth Rs 10,836 million as against Rs 12,071 million the previous year, registering a decline of 10 per cent. Here, I must point out that last year we received a high voltage order of Rs 1.7 billion. If we have to compare our usual or normal business, by removing such special order, our order value actually increased by about 5 per cent, he added.

Earlier, this year, Siemens announced a share buy-back programme to buy from the open market at a price not exceeding Rs 250 per share for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 805.25 million. As of 30 September 2001, the company bought back 1,868,000 shares at a weighted average price of Rs 197.57 per share and deployed a total of Rs 369 million towards this.

Mr. Schubert said, Even in an extremely difficult environment, we have been able to achieve our planned targets, bringing the company to a more stable position. By intensifying our sales efforts, we were able to increase our market shares in key businesses. Our basic policy of taking only quality orders that has given us a healthy bottom line pay off.

He said, Siemens group in India is not just Siemens Ltd but has 13 other companies in its fold. The Siemens group with a consolidated turnover of Rs 26.4 billion is unique. No other company in India and also in the world has the kind of offering that we have under one roof.