Siemens is preparing the sale of its security products business as Europe’s biggest engineering company combs through its portfolio to weed out laggards.

The company hired investment bank Rothschild for a sale of the unit, which has fewer than 350 employees and offers products such as security cameras and access card readers, according to three people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.

Division head Roland Busch said in an interview in Davos last week that the unit did not have a “viable business case” as a stand-alone entity.

Siemens chief executive Peter Loescher has come under pressure to boost profitability and refocus the company after some deals that he had supervised soured, and a push into more environmentally friendly energy generation led to spiralling costs. – (Bloomberg)