According to a senior executive familiar with the big handset makers, the cash “dowry” has failed to attract an offer from NEC and Fujitsu of Japan, or from Ningbo Bird of China.
Siemens has committed itself to “close, fix or sell” Siemens Mobile, sponsor of the footballing giant Real Madrid. A sale or joint venture with an Asian manufacturer would address one of the biggest problems it faces: its bloated overheads, largely stemming from its dependence on well-paid German factory workers.
One source said: “Siemens has offered a dowry of anything up to the closure costs. But nobody sees any value in it.”
Siemens Mobile plunged into loss last year, and has recently suffered a sharp fall in sales because of problems with its 65-series handsets. Richard Windsor, analyst at Nomura International, said he expected Siemens Mobile to lose €480m this year, which he considered “massively substantial. This is cash going out the door”.
As the standard-bearer for industrial Germany, Siemens is under political pressure not to make large-scale redundancies among the unit’s 4,000 staff. Windsor said: “Closure is absolutely the last option. The company tends to put its employees before its shareholders. It will avoid cutting costs. It will avoid making people redundant.”
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If Siemens fails to find a buyer, Windsor expects the group to try to fix the mobile business, at least for another three quarters.
Siemens would not comment on the cash incentive. A spokewoman for the company said: “We are looking at all the options, and won’t have anything to say before we have made a final decision.”