Siemens expects to earn around 1.2 billion Euros from the sale of Siemens Healthineers shares

Siemens, a German engineering company, announced on Wednesday that it would sell a 2% share in its healthcare subsidiary Siemens Healthineers. The sale will raise approximately 1.2 billion euro ($1.25 billion), which could be used to pay for the acquisition of U.S.-based software firm Altair Engineering.

Siemens will be able to reduce its stake in the medical device maker, which was listed in 2018, from 75% down to 73% by selling 22 million shares via a private placing.

Siemens stated that the proceeds would be used to "general corporate purpose." The money will likely be used to pay for Altair's acquisition last year, which was worth $10.6 billion. This is the second largest acquisition in Siemens history.

Roland Busch, Siemens CEO, said that Siemens will likely reduce its stakes in Healthineers and Siemens Energy by 5% each this year.

Siemens recently reduced its Siemens Energy holding from 15% to 14,3% and said that it will gradually reduce this holding until 2025.

Ralf Thomas, Chief Financial Officer at Siemens, told analysts

The company announced last week that it would provide a strategic update on what it would do with its Siemens Healthineers holding at its Investor Day on December 9.

(source: Reuters)