Germany's Siemens missed quarterly profit forecasts and said it saw earnings flat over the full year despite finally shedding its loss-making mobile-phones unit.
Operating profit fell by more than a quarter to €980 million ($1.18 billion), missing the lowest estimate in a Reuters poll for the quarter to June as the remaining parts of Siemens's communications business and its IT services unit underperformed.
Chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld conceded that the sale of the mobile phones unit - which shareholders of Taiwanese technology group BenQ agreed today to take over - was not the end of restructuring.
"Of course there is still a lot to do," Mr Kleinfeld said. "The performance at Siemens Business Services, Communications and Logistics and Assembly Systems is disappointing."
Siemens gave no new full-year sales outlook after raising revenues by a forecast-beating 7 per cent to €18.75 billion in the quarter and new orders by 9 per cent to €19.935 billion. It had previously said it aimed to increase sales by more than last year's 1 per cent rise.
Siemens shares were down today 2.9 per cent to €64.27, the biggest decliner on Germany's blue-chip DAX.
Arch-rival General Electric - the world's biggest industrial conglomerate - has said it should increase earnings by more than 10 per cent this year and beyond after posting a 24-per cent rise in profit last quarter.