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Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | August 01, 2018
Siemens Healthineers is looking to ease the tariff hits to costs by altering supply routs to ship more of its U.S.-destined goods from European factories rather than Chinese ones, chief financial officer Jochen Schmitz told reporters Monday, according to Reuters.
“This won’t happen without leaving some trace on our results because we have to change logistic chains ... depending on how the situation develops,” he said, following the company's conference call on Q3 results.
He advised the tariff impact would be low – “a low single digit million euro impact on Healthineers’ results this year,” said the wire service.
“When it stays in this range it won’t be a catastrophe but of course the topic is very, very regrettable because it significantly impairs global trade,” he said.
As of 2017, Healthineers had 23 U.S. plants and sites, with another 17 in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region housing 11.
Adjusting to the tariff landscape was not the least of the Healthineers’ economic picture, as it announced results for its fiscal third quarter, which came in at an adjusted operating property margin of about 16 percent, down from 17.1 percent in the year-ago quarter.
Currency moves and the price tag for the launch of its new diagnostics machine hit profits in Q3, but the company affirmed that it would still make its annual targets, and shares have been strong since its mid-March debut on the Frankfurt stock exchange, holding to a target of an adjusted operating profit margin of 17 to 18 percent for 2018.
Operating profit in its fiscal third quarter was down 10 percent, at 503 million euros, with flat sales of 3.3 billion euros ($3.85 billion),
according to Reuters.
The company reported that its Atellica Solution deliveries were being “accelerated”, and remain on track, with over 560 systems delivered the the Q3 end. Its goal is to move from 800 to 1,000 systems by the end of the fiscal year.
So far, about 35 percent of the systems went to new customers, according to the company. Schmitz told reporters that the system's “rollout had weighed on profitability, as the time taken to deliver and install the machines had led to a delay in revenues from the consumables used in the analyzers,” according to the wire agency.
“The pleasing development in revenue underlines our competitive strength. We are also satisfied with the positive development in the delivery of our new laboratory diagnostics system Atellica Solution. Despite increasingly negative currency effects and investments in the future of the laboratory diagnostics business, we confirm our guidance for the current fiscal year,” Bernd Montag, CEO, Siemens Healthineers, said in a statement after the conference call. “The high level of participation in our first employee share program shows just how convinced our colleagues are of the positive future of our company.”
