Siemens: India to be Top 3 Market in 3 Years

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) India is the fastest growing market for Siemens and will replace France and possibly the home market of Germany in terms of revenue in the next three years, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The company is investing heavily in the country given the market potential, Peter Koerte, a member of the managing board, told reporters here, pointing to a recent announcement of pumping in 100 million euros in India.

"In the next three years, India will emerge as the third or the fourth largest for us," Koerte, who also heads the technology and strategy function at the group level, said.

He said the US leads the pecking order by a wide margin when it comes to the top line and is followed by China, Germany and France at present.

Revenues from India, where it has had a presence for the last 157 years, constitute up to 4 per cent of the overall pie, Sunil Mathur, the managing director and chief executive of the local unit, said.

Mathur said the company expects more orders from the government and state-owned entities linked to it like the railways. It has already secured a Rs 30,000-crore order to supply locomotives over 11 years to the railways.

Nearly 60 per cent of the company's business comes from the government or state-owned entities, Mathur said, adding that there has been considerable improvement in the ease of doing business in India over the last 5-6 years.

He said there are signs of a pick up in the private sector investments as well and the company is tending to the same in sectors like data centres where it has a solution to reduce energy consumption or renewable energy.

The sluggishness in the investment activity by corporates in traditional sectors such as food and beverages, auto and pharma for the last few years is a "temporary blip", Mathur said.

Siemens has a total workforce of 32,000 in the country, including 10,000 software professionals focusing its global operations from centres in Pune and Bengaluru.

Mathur said infrastructure, industrial sector and mobility are the key sectors where it sees demand in the country.

When asked about the challenges of operating in India against other nations, Koerte pointed to the "cost sensitiveness" in the market having over 6 crore small and medium enterprises as a key factor.