Siemens Energy's Identity Question Deepens as Works Council Chief Reopens the Spin-Off Wound

Siemens works council head criticizes the 2020 spinoff, while Siemens Energy weighs restructuring and rebrands as Omterra amid strong stock gains.

The debate over Siemens Energy's future is no longer confined to the boardroom. It now has a vocal critic from the very house that let it go.

Tobias Bäumler, head of the Siemens group works council, has publicly branded the decision to spin off Siemens Energy — executed under former CEO Joe Kaeser between 2018 and 2020 — a mistake. In an interview with WELT, he argued that both Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Energy have flourished since their separation, and that the parent company would be worth more today had it kept both divisions under one roof.

The timing is awkward for a company that has spent years trying to put distance between itself and its former parent. Siemens Energy is now weighing a structural overhaul of its own, one that could see its "Transformation of Industry" unit sold or spun off under an internal review codenamed "Project Voyager."

A Boardroom Reckoning Arrives on Two Fronts

The supervisory board is scheduled to convene for a special session on August 25 to weigh strategic options for the industrial division, which generates an operating margin of 14 percent — respectable by most standards, but a laggard relative to the group's core businesses.

Running parallel to that discussion is a rebranding effort that signals a clean break from the Siemens name. A new umbrella brand, "Omterra," is being prepared to house both Siemens Energy and the wind subsidiary Siemens Gamesa once the licensing agreement with Siemens AG expires. Market speculation has also swirled that Siemens AG could trim its remaining stake in the energy group at its November balance sheet press conference.

Bäumler, for his part, supports the current restructuring under CEO Roland Busch, describing it as a paradigm shift toward technology and artificial intelligence. But he is pressing management for greater transparency on strategic direction — a pointed ask from a figure whose own critique of past decisions has reignited internal debate.

The Numbers Tell a Story of Redemption

The stock has become a barometer of how dramatically sentiment has shifted. Shares closed Friday at €161.00, down 0.4 percent on the day, but that masks a broader trajectory that would have seemed unthinkable when the wind division was bleeding billions. The equity has gained 34 percent since the start of the year and 64 percent over twelve months. Over the past seven trading sessions alone, it has added 4.9 percent.

That rally has cooled from its April peak of €195.38 — the 52-week high — leaving the stock roughly 18 percent below that mark. Yet the underlying momentum remains intact, supported by an order book that keeps swelling.

Last Wednesday, the company signed an agreement with Babcock & Wilcox to deliver 20 steam turbogenerator sets with a combined capacity of one gigawatt, destined for the "FastPower" program powering AI data centers in the United States. SBM Offshore has also placed an order for gas compression and power generation systems for two new FPSO units for Petrobras in Brazil's Sergipe-Alagoas basin.

These contracts reinforce the picture painted by the latest quarterly results: record order intake and revenue, a tripled profit before special items, and a wind business that has finally returned to profitability. CEO Christian Bruch has confirmed the upgraded full-year guidance issued in May, targeting a net profit of around €4 billion with an earnings margin between 10 and 12 percent.

A Structural Winner in a Shifting Economy

The critique of the historical spin-off lands in a week when record second-quarter profits across DAX companies dominated headlines. According to an analysis by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the combined operating result of index members climbed to €52.6 billion, up 16 percent year-on-year.

Siemens Energy is cited alongside Rheinmetall and RWE as a beneficiary of the defense spending cycle and the AI boom — a stark contrast to traditional industrial sectors like automotive, where thousands of jobs are being cut. The company that was once the problem child of the Siemens portfolio, plagued by troubles at Siemens Gamesa, now ranks among the most profitable DAX stocks of the year.

Whether Siemens would indeed be more valuable today had it retained the energy business is a question that cannot be answered with hindsight. What is clear is that the separation gave Siemens Energy the autonomy to navigate a difficult environment for old-economy manufacturers with considerably more agility than many of its peers.

For investors, two narratives now converge: the operational strength visible in overflowing order books, and the structural uncertainty of what comes next. The supervisory board's special session on August 25 should offer the first clues on which direction the company intends to take — and whether the break from its past will be as clean as the new brand name suggests.