Siemens 2005 Annual Report Download - page 7

7
Letter to our Shareholders
Dear Shareholders,
Last January, on my first day as President and CEO of Siemens AG, I sent some 500
personal letters to customers around the world. Over the course of the next 100 days,
I personally visited more than 100 of these companies. What I learned from our cus-
tomers is extremely encouraging for our Company. They gave me clear advice on
what to continue and what to improve. They confirmed that we have one of the largest,
most loyal customer bases in the world and that they rely on us to bring them cutting-
edge innovations to keep them a step ahead of their competition and the trends that
impact their markets. This customer confidence in Siemens will drive our growth in
2006 and well into the future.
This past year demonstrated that we already have strong growth momentum,
but we also have some tough challenges to overcome. What were the highlights?
Growth accelerated
New orders climbed to €84 billion, showing 11 percent growth compared with fiscal
2004. We already exceeded our medium-term goal of growing twice as fast as global
GDP. Worldwide sales were up 7 percent to €75 billion over the previous year. Growth
was especially impressive in the most dynamic regions of the world. In Asia-Pacific,
for example, orders were up 23 percent. In the Americas, they were up 19 percent.
Portfolio further developed
We divested our loss-making mobile phone business to BenQ, which was the best
solution in the interest of customers, employees, and you, our shareholders. We
strengthened our portfolio in the field of energy with the acquisitions of VA Techno-
logie and Bonus Energy. The VA Technologie acquisition also boosted our portfolio
in the industry sector as did our purchases of Flender and Robicon. By acquiring
Photoscan, we broadened our security offerings. In the medical field, our complete
acquisition of CTI Molecular Imaging contributed to a significant strengthening of
our healthcare business. Myrio and Chantry, both folded into our Communications
Group, enlarged our offerings in the fields of home entertainment systems and WLAN
solutions for enterprise customers. And with the acquisition of USFilter the year
before, we gained a leading position in water and wastewater systems in the U.S., both
of which are now being rolled out into other regional markets by our global sales force.
Earnings on target
Earnings from continuing operations were €3.1 billion – equal to last year on a com-
parable basis. If we include the effects of our discontinued and loss-making operations
in mobile phones, our net income totaled €2.2 billion.