Siemens 2005 Annual Report Download - page 104

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Other Operations
Other Operations consist of centrally held equity investments, joint ventures and other operating
businesses not related to a Group. With the announced carve-out of the Dematic businesses
mentioned above, their results are included in Other Operations on a retroactive basis to main-
tain a meaningful comparison with prior years. In fiscal 2005, these businesses contributed
approximately €1 billion in sales, a 11% decrease compared to the prior year. Group profit from
Other Operations was €45 million compared to €246 million in the prior year, which included
a negative €43 million from the Dematic businesses. In the current period, these activities
impacted results through asset impairments of €98 million, project charges and higher operating
losses. In addition, earnings from joint ventures were also lower year-over-year.
Corporate items, pensions and eliminations
Corporate items, pensions and eliminations totaled a negative €1.072 billion in fiscal 2005, com-
pared to a negative €1.206 billion in fiscal 2004. Within the total, corporate items accounted for
a negative €537 million. For comparison, the negative €450 million in corporate items a year
earlier included the pre-tax Infineon gain of €590 million, partly offset by a €433 million goodwill
impairment related to airport logistics and distribution and industry logistics activities acquired
from Atecs Mannesmann in 2001. Centrally carried pension expense was €519 million compared
to €729 million a year earlier. This decrease was due primarily to supplemental pension funding,
which increased pension plan assets and expected absolute returns, and lower amortization of
unrecognized net losses in the current year compared to the prior-year period. We expect cen-
trally carried pension expense to increase in fiscal 2006 due to a reduction in the discount rate
assumption at September 30, 2005.
Management’s discussion and analysis
Segment information analysis