Siemens profit

German electronics and engineering group Siemens is poised to cut jobs despite posting a surprising large profit margin this quarter.

Chief financial officer Joe Kaeser announced Tuesday that "adjustments" would be necessary, despite a 24 percent jump in quarterly profit.

Surprising profit

The Munich-based company posted a profit of 1.53 billion euros (2.15 billion dollars) in the first quarter of its fiscal year, up from 1.23 billion euros in the same period last year.

"All in all, we're well on our way toward achieving our goals for the fiscal year," said Siemens CEO Peter Loescher at the group's annual press conference in Munich.

However, Loescher also said that an end to the economic crisis is still not in sight, and he foresees "challenging" conditions in the manufacturing sector and on financial markets.

"It will still take some time before the global economy recovery trickles down to industry," said Loescher. "Until then, there is going to be a dry spell."

Job cuts expected

It's not the first time Siemens has let go of employees recently. In 2008, Siemens eliminated almost 17,000 jobs in a round of cuts that left many other employees with reduced working hours. Currently, the technological giant employs about 402,000 people world wide.

The nature of the cuts is expected to be announced on Thursday.

smh/dpa/afp
Editor: Rob Turner