Siemens to list health care arm as Egypt helps boost profit

Frankfurt : Germany's Siemens AG said that it's looking to list its health care business as it revealed a quarterly profit boost from a large power generation project in Egypt.

The Munich-based company, which makes heavy industrial equipment including trains and medical scanners, said its profit for the quarter ending Sept. 30 rose 18 percent to 1.18 billion euros ($1.28 billion) from 1.00 billion euros in the period a year earlier. The quarterly profit was slightly below market expectations for 1.24 billion euros.

The profit boost came on a modest 3 percent increase in sales to 21.95 billion euros.

Siemens said its power and gas division was seeing more revenue as it fulfills a large order for electricity generating facilities in Egypt. Siemens is building three power plants and 12 wind parks in an effort to boost the country's power generating capacity by 50 percent.

The quarter ended the company's fiscal year. For the full year, net profit fell to 5.6 billion euros from 7.4 billion euros the year before, when it booked one-time gains of 3.0 billion euros from selling its hearing aid business and its share in BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH.

The company also said it would seek a public listing for its health care business, which it has already carved out as a separate business within the group. It said the timing would depend on stock market conditions.

Investors appeared to welcome the move and the company's share price rose 4.6 percent to 109.25 euros.