The net profits of Europe's largest industrial conglomerate - Siemens AG in the second quarter of fiscal year 2015 increased by 3.5 times, getting to 3.89 billion euro, or 4.70 euro per share, compared with 1.12 billion euro, or 1.33 euro per share, obtained in the same period a year earlier.
The analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal, expected net profit of 2.01 billion euro.
The rapid growth of the net income were due to non-recurring gains from the sale of shares in the joint venture for the production of household appliances with Robert Bosch GmbH (1,4 billion euro), as well as the alienation of hearing devices department (1.6 billion euro) and hospital information systems (200 million euro).
However, other financial results fell short of market expectations.
The profit from continuing operations fell 4.9%, getting to 1.66 billion euro, while the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg proposed a figure of 1.71 billion euro.
Amid the weakening euro, the Siemens revenue during the quarter increased by 8% - from 16.7 billion to 18.05 billion euro. The organic growth (excluding exchange rate differences, the purchase and sale of assets and other one-time factors) was zero. The receipt of new orders increased by 16% - to 20.75 billion euro which is also due to the large orders of railcar division in Germany.
For the current year Siemens confirmed expectations on the profitability in the industrial sector in a range from 10% to 11%.
Siemens announced the reduction of another 4.5 thousand jobs, including 2.2 thousand in the generating unit in Germany, as the company faces a continuing difficult conditions in the world market of power generation. The generating unit of the Siemens suffers from regulatory changes, a significant decline in prices, aggressive competition and regional overcapacity, according to a press release from the German company.