He states that he cannot yet quantify the exact impact of the workforce reduction nor the countries
MADRID, 8 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Siemens Energy will replace the current CEO of Siemens Gamesa, Jochen Eickholt, and will undertake restructuring measures, which will involve “staffing adjustments”, with the aim of facing a long-term plan for the profitable growth of its wind business.
In a statement, the German energy company stated that the exact impact of the workforce reduction cannot yet be quantified, neither by country nor by location, although it added that, overall, “the number of Siemens Gamesa employees is expected to remain the same. more or less constant in the coming years, as areas such as the offshore business (offshore wind) will continue to grow.
In this regard, the company highlighted that the objective is to absorb as much as possible of the planned workforce reduction in the affected areas through relocations to other areas.
For his part, Eickholt has informed the board of directors of Siemens Gamesa that he will leave his position on July 31 and will leave the company on September 30. He will be succeeded by Vinod Philip on August 1, who will become the company’s fourth CEO – after Markus Tacke, Andreas Nauen and Eickholt himself – since the integration between Gamesa and Siemens’ wind division took place. in 2017.
The group, which noted that the change has occurred “by mutual agreement between the parties,” said that under Philip’s leadership the wind energy division will be integrated into the management structure of Siemens Energy and he will assume operational responsibility. For his part, Eickholt will oversee that the transfer is carried out in an orderly and fluid manner during this transition period.
Vinod Philip’s successor as Director of Global Functions – including IT, Procurement, Innovation, Logistics and Project Management – will be announced later.
In addition, Jochen Eickholt and Vinod Philip will finalize in the coming weeks the concrete measures regarding workforce adjustments, which will be negotiated with worker representatives in the coming months.
The CEO of Siemens Energy, Christian Bruch, valued Eickholt’s commitment “in a particularly complicated period”, laying “the central pillars for the reorganization that the company urgently needed and its integration” and recalled that the causes of the quality problems They did not occur during his tenure as CEO.
With these changes at the top, Siemens Gamesa will implement important restructuring and long-term strategic development measures with the aim of achieving a double-digit operating margin.
The objective of these measures is to reach break-even in 2026 and return to profitability thereafter.
To this end, the company indicated that it will continue to be active in both the onshore and offshore businesses. In the specific case of the ‘onshore’ activity, it will focus mainly on Europe and the United States, markets that offer a stable regulatory framework and in which Siemens Gamesa can optimally and profitably satisfy the needs of its customers. Additionally, other local markets will be served only if it makes economic sense in each specific case.
In the case of the onshore wind area, they will adapt to this new situation and the most important task will continue to be the increase in production capacity, which is currently going ahead as planned at the plants in Cuxhaven (Germany), Aalborg (Denmark) and Le Havre (France). The service activity will remain an important pillar.
Likewise, with the aim of increasing the presence in the onshore turbine maintenance area, the responsibilities of the onshore and services business will be combined.
Siemens Energy considered that this comprehensive approach has been successfully applied in other areas of the group’s business in recent years and that the new organizational model will help “reduce hierarchical levels and regulate responsibilities more clearly.”
The German energy company adopts these measures after presenting profits of 108 million euros in its second fiscal quarter, compared to losses of 189 million euros in the same period of the previous year.
However, Siemens Gamesa continues to be the great Achilles heel for the group, adding losses of 365 million euros in this quarter and with a forecast of ‘red numbers’ of 2,000 million euros in the total for this year.
The problems suffered by Siemens Gamesa led Siemens Energy to request financial aid from the German State, which guaranteed the group with 7.5 billion out of a total amount of 12 billion guarantees. of which 11,000 million euros will be provided to the company through a consortium of banks, after announcing record losses of 4,588 million euros in its fiscal year 2023, weighed down mainly by its wind subsidiary.
Last year the net losses of the Spanish subsidiary of Siemens Energy already amounted to 4,347 million euros. Emerging in 2017 from the integration of Gamesa with Siemens’ wind business, the company, since the German group took full control of the company in 2020, after acquiring its 8% stake from Iberdrola, has seen year after year ‘red numbers’ have happened.
Thus, in fiscal year 2020 it recorded losses of 918 million euros, another 626 million euros in 2021 and 937 million euros in 2022.
Furthermore, the Spanish Government already announced last year that it was working on a possible line of bank guarantees for new Siemens Gamesa contracts abroad, with CESCE coverage on behalf of the State.
