By Marleen Kaesebier
(Reuters) -German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers on Thursday reported first-quarter revenue slightly above consensus, rising 5.5% at market open, as its U.S. revenues increased by 16% while those from China declined 6% due to “continued delays in customer orders”.
Like its healthcare technology sector peers, Siemens Healthineers has been struggling against a Chinese anti-corruption campaign. As hospitals scale back equipment orders, growth in China has been dampened.
In January the European Commission concluded that EU medical device suppliers are not given fair access to China’s public tenders.
“We continue to expect a decline in sales (in China) in the medium to high percentage range and a flat trend in the following quarters,” Chief Financial Officer Jochen Schmitz said in a call with journalists on China sales in the first half of the year.
On U.S. trade tariffs, CEO Bernd Montag said: “We share the concern about a possible global trade disruption and are monitoring the situation closely”.
“In my opinion, the level of risk in the healthcare and medical technology sector as a whole is significantly lower than in other sectors,” he added.
The German company, which has headquarters in the U.S. for two of its four segments, expects U.S. tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada to have a “minor impact” if imposed in a month, saying that US tariffs on imports from China will have “an even smaller impact”.
Overall “headwind will be limited and remain manageable” the company said, also expecting a stronger U.S. dollar.
The company’s first-quarter group revenue landed at 5.48 billion euros ($5.69 billion), rising 5.9% from a year earlier and higher than the 5.37 billion euros expected by analysts in a Vara Research-compiled consensus.
In a call Siemens Healthineers said it is now expecting revenue growth at the lower end of the full year guidance range of 5% to 6% for the second quarter but confirmed its full-year guidance.
($1 = 0.9628 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Hübner and Marleen Kaesebier; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Ros Russell)
