ZUG, Switzerland — Siemens is contemplating acquisitions in electric-vehicle charging and constructing administration software program to speed up progress at its Sensible Infrastructure (SI) division, the corporate mentioned.

Siemens needs to broaden its choices and develop quicker than rivals as drivers change to EVs and workplace blocks and flats turn into extra related, managing board member Matthias Rebellius instructed Reuters.

“Sensible constructing software program is changing into extra essential with the upper integration wanted to handle, function and keep buildings,” mentioned Rebellius, who can be CEO of SI.

“We have already got an enormous software program base and lots of software program builders. We are able to broaden it by investing in start-ups or making acquisitions,” he mentioned.

The e-mobility enterprise is “positively” one other space Siemens was thinking about, the 56-year-old mentioned, citing annual business progress charges of 30 p.c for EVs.

Siemens has been investing not too long ago in markets adjoining to its conventional prospects base, with the intention of increasing its buyer base by 120 billion euros ($141 billion) per yr.

The corporate has spent 550 million euros ($648 million) this yr on a software program acquisition for its mobility enterprise in addition to $700 million on electrical part provider Supplyframe.

Rebellius declined to present a worth vary for future offers at SI, saying Siemens didn’t have a price range for acquisitions.

“It is much less a query of how a lot you’re ready to pay, and extra about … what progress can we create and the way a lot worth can we add,” he mentioned.

The SI division relies in Zug, Switzerland and employs 70,000 individuals globally and reported gross sales of 14.3 billion euros in 2020, 1 / 4 of mother or father Siemens’s complete.

It needs to take market share from rivals like ABB, Schneider Electrical, Honeywell and Johnson Controls by rising income by 4 p.c to six p.c within the medium time period – quicker than the market fee of three p.c.

Siemens additionally needs to double the share of SI income it will get from its digital enterprise — software program and companies used to manage energy grids, entry, heating and lighting in buildings, for instance — to just about 10 p.c by 2025.

Software program boasts larger margins than for the merchandise enterprise which incorporates hearth and smoke detectors, sensors and fuse packing containers.

Having a broad vary of companies runs opposite to the current development at industrial corporations to simplify their operations, though Rebellius mentioned his prospects most popular it.

“Actually, once I discuss to prospects, they aren’t asking for suppliers centered on one product solely,” mentioned Rebellius, who mentioned corporations working in just one space was extra a subject for analysts.

At SI companies with revenues of two billion euros have been earmarked for enchancment or sale two years in the past, with 700 million of this already bought.

Different components might additionally go, Rebellius mentioned, as SI focused a mid-term revenue margin of 11 p.c to 16 p.c.

Margins have improved to 11.5 p.c up to now in 2021, a degree that’s sustainable, he added, though the 9 p.c improve in revenues shouldn’t be as comparisons get tougher.

However even when workplaces are used much less as working from dwelling will increase after the pandemic, Rebellius was assured.

“We don’t promote glass and concrete,” he mentioned. “The content material of buildings will probably be much more digital in future, much more technical and that’s optimistic for us.”