Siemens looks abroad for funds

SIEMENS, EUROPE’S biggest engineering group, has held talks with sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf, Russia and other regions in an attempt to expand its long-term investor base.

Joe Kaeser, chief financial officer, said the German industrial conglomerate “would very much welcome an active involvement” by such funds. The prospect of a sovereign wealth fund taking a large stake in a company as prominent as Siemens could prove politically contentious in Germany, where the growing influence of the funds has been heatedly debated.

Just last week the German cabinet adopted a Bill that would allow the blocking of non-European investors trying to buy a stake of more than 25 per cent in a German company.

In Ireland, Siemens employs more than 1,100 people at offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.

But such a deal could boost business opportunities in some of the world’s fastest-growing regions for Siemens. Its interest in such a move has increased since last month when US rival General Electric announced a deal with Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s increasingly powerful investment vehicle. – (Financial Times service)

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times