Good morning and welcome to our financial news conference here in Munich. We'll be talking about a type of celebration. This is our fifth financial press conference. Thank you for coming here today, and thank you and welcome to all of you who are viewing us in the live stream. Yesterday we published our figures as of 2024, and we will be hearing about the details on that in just a minute. We have our CFO, Maria Ferraro, and our CEO, Christian Bruch. Good morning to both of you. For your information, this conference will be recorded and will be available as a webcast on the internet, and this will be in the original language.
Christian will be speaking to us in German. Maria will be speaking to us in English, and we are also offering, in addition to the English channel, there will also be a Spanish channel, and you can switch between the channels if you like. As always, I'd like to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement. This is also found in the quarterly statements, and on the screen here you can see a summary of the points. If you want to go into more detail, as you know, this is linked to the complete text. Ladies and gentlemen, today's press conference is divided into three parts. Christian Bruch and Maria Ferraro will be giving us a view of the past year, the past fiscal year 2024 at Siemens Energy.
The second part will then be the contribution Siemens Energy can make to energy transformation, and will also give us the possibility to grow profitably. We have some exhibits with us here today, which you can have a look at here in the room, and of course we will show them with a camera on the live screen. The third part will then be the outlook. As you've seen last night, we also updated our medium-term outlook, and Christian and Maria will be going into more detail on that. And then, of course, you will have the opportunity to ask questions, so that should suffice. Over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Robin. I would also like to welcome you all. Good morning. I'm happy that you found your way to our fifth financial press conference here in person, and I'd also like to welcome all of the journalists who are following us online. I would also like to welcome our colleagues in Spain who have joined us again. The horrific events in Spain have demonstrated to us how important it is to keep on fighting against climate change because we've seen what the ramifications are. 2024 was a successful financial year for Siemens Energy, and I think it's safe to say that we accomplished a great deal. I'd like to start by looking at 2024 in review. I would like to present to you the key figures. In 2024, we saw that the work that we triggered in Gas Services, Grid Technologies, and Transformation of Industry is bearing fruit.
Work processes were improved, plant capacity utilization was increased, and a lot of things are going in the right direction. What we've also witnessed is that the work at Siemens Gamesa was resumed after the horrific year 2023 with a host of challenges and problems. We have managed to work through all of the issues step by step. We managed to come up with solutions. We're in the process of implementing the quality measures in the field. At the end of the financial year, we started sales again with the onshore platform. Productivity has been boosted, so a number of different issues have been tackled properly, and things are going in the right direction as we planned for in 2024, step by step. We are in a market environment that's extremely positive. As a company, we benefit from the electricity expansion.
This is something that we are feeling a lot of tailwind from this year and also expect to feel in the next years. The market is very positive, and this has been mirrored especially in Grid Technologies and Gas Services , which are our designations for our business areas. If you look at the figures for 2024, it's safe to say that we were quite impressed in terms of incoming orders. We have € 50 billion in incoming orders. That's much more than what we had predicted 12 months ago. Given the incoming orders from the past year, we were able to drive up revenue by 12.8% to € 34.5 billion. We were able to finish at the upper end of the planned margin range of 1% before special items, and our net income came to € 1.3 billion, and here you have to bear in mind that special items are included from disposals.
We aren't where we want to be in a number of areas. You can tell this from the medium-term goals that we have published, but we have taken a step in the right direction after a fiscal 2023, which, as I said before, destroyed a lot of trust in the financial market. What's important for us now is quarter over quarter to keep on delivering to demonstrate that Siemens Energy can play a decisive role in the energy transition. This, of course, has been reflected in our share price. I would like to start at the low point in October of 2023 when the guarantees from the federal government were taken out. That was definitely the low point in the past year. And we must remember to put this in context that this became necessary due to the high order backlog and the high level of incoming orders.
We had to give increasing guarantees to our customers, and because of that, in addition to the commercial bank guarantees, we needed the guarantees from the federal government. They're very painful for us. They cost us a lot of money. It limits our capability to pay a dividend, and therefore we are greatly interested in redeeming these guarantees as quickly as possible. Our goals for the year were raised by the middle of the year, and you can see that the share price stabilized around the middle of the year and then really took off over the remaining course of the financial year, also in part because quarter over quarter the company delivered on our previous commitments. As I said before, positive growth. And here there's something I'd like to underscore: an extremely hardworking, disciplined workforce.
We have 99,000 employees, and over the past couple of years, they have been drawn through a valley of tears, and with a lot of dedication, our employees have managed to accomplish a turnaround, and this enables us to look back on a year that has many more highs than lows. This has also demonstrated that we are capable of successfully tackling challenges, the type of which we experienced in our wind business. Nevertheless, given all of the debate about wind energy and renewable energy, wind is indispensable for the energy transition. Therefore, it is important for us to do our homework and solve the issues we can in our company. Vinod and his entire team do this day in, day out, and at the same time, we do not tire to promote specific framework conditions.
Affordable prices are necessary, and we need to make sure that we create value locally in Europe. Over the last quarter, as in every quarter, we reported record order backlogs, and this is why we decided to raise our targets for the year. Prospectively, we raised the medium-term planning, and Maria will go into this in more detail in just a minute so that you'll see in what direction we're going, and as I said before, we're benefiting from global demand for electricity. What's good is that we have a portfolio that, across its breadth, is growing in all areas, from renewable energy to grids, fossil fuel technologies that are efficient. This is something that benefits from the fact that demand for electricity is growing 2.7%. This adds electricity every year that can be compared to the electricity consumption in a country like Japan.
This shows how high the challenges are. As Robin just said, in a minute, we will go into more depth in the issues. We will tell you what our individual business areas are doing, what the road forward looks like, but we will now start by looking at the figures. Therefore, I would like to now pass the floor to Maria.
Thank you.
Guten Morgen zusammen. Hello everyone. Actually, a very warm welcome also from my side. It's good to see you all here in the room with us, and hello also to those that are joining virtually. So, as Christian really nicely set up in terms of our fiscal year 2024 results, we had a strong year at Siemens Energy. Here you see the key figures. By the way, more details, of course, are on our website. Here you see, with respect to orders, a number of EUR 50 billion, just over EUR 50 billion, which is slightly above last year. To put that into context, actually, we had anticipated a reduction in orders within the wind power business, if you recall. Of course, it was an offshore transition year. In terms of onshore, we ceased taking orders until our quality issues were resolved, or at least during the progress of being resolved.
If you take that into context, without wind power, we actually were 30% growth of orders, again highlighting what Christian just mentioned in terms of the market momentum behind our businesses. This then translated into a very strong revenue for the year of just shy of EUR 35 billion, 13% revenue growth year over year. This was slightly above even our own expectations. And here, of course, that's on the back of that strong momentum within our markets, but also the ability, as Christian mentioned, for us to be able to step by step really convert that backlog with the attention to operational excellence. Speaking of operational excellence, that brings us to the next point with profit margin. Very proud that we returned to profitability here at 1% or EUR 345 million. Of course, you see last year the -9%.
Again, on the back of that, we now have free cash flow. Early in the year, you know that we took proactive measures to strengthen our balance sheet. In that, coupled with the strong profit conversion of this year, we see almost EUR 2 billion in cash flow year over year. So, very happy with the results in all areas with respect to our KPIs. We either met or exceeded, and again, setting us up for next year based on our outlook and for the years to come based on that very strong order backlog and the margin therein. So, looking at the quarter, Q4, it's important to end the year strong, and indeed we did with a 42% plus increase in orders. This was on the back of GS and GT really seeing strong orders not only for new units, but also for service in Gas Services .
Again, then, revenue, a slice of revenue just shy of EUR 10 billion for the quarter. This is a record revenue intake for us for one quarter. This translates to just shy of 17% year-over-year growth. And again, as expected, of course, the book-to-bill very strong based on that, orders over EUR 1.5 billion, and the profit as expected because of how the dynamics worked with all the other business areas. And of course, with wind power, a slight negative profit for the quarter, but of course better than last year as we reduced the loss at Siemens Gamesa. But also very proud is regarding the free cash flow at EUR 932 million. There were some puts and takes if you look at last year, of course, but overall strong conversion across the board.
And again, of course, on the back of our order intake where we see advance payments and milestone payments receiving from our customers. So, a strong end to the fiscal year. And I think, as Christian mentioned, that market momentum continues in Q4 and will continue into fiscal year 2025. So, just taking a slight deeper dive into our business areas. Here you see all four of our business areas. Again, as mentioned, we have a different format here to really put into context. All of the targets for our business areas were met or exceeded. And I think this underpins that strong year that we've been discussing. Looking at GS on the left-hand side, here we had almost 30% of orders growth, again due to some really significant large orders in important markets like the U.S. and in the Middle East.
And not only is it in new units, which of course make the foundation for the future with respect to service and our service contracts that we get on the back of those large unit orders. And of course, a stronger than also expected free cash flow. And I think this is also partly attributable to the top line, but also really keeping a keen eye on our net working capital. With respect to profit for Gas Services, you see here a strong 9.5%. It should be noted that there was a specific item that we talked about in Q3 and was resolved in Q4 with respect to a legacy litigation item. If you take the amount of that litigation out, the settlement amount, actually Gas Services, what is that? A very strong 10.5% for the year. So, well done to the Gas Services team.
Moving forward to Grid Technologies, here you see a very strong double-digit order intake year over year, plus extremely strong revenue growth on the back of real demand with respect to electricity and all that our Grid Technologies business is able to provide. What's also important is that we have a strong cash conversion in Grid Technologies, really almost over a billion more year over year at EUR 2.2 billion. And of course, looking at double-digit growth in revenue continuing for our Grid Technologies business, well done. TI performed above expectations in all KPIs. And of course, also noted was some of the turnaround businesses that we've discussed in previous quarters and certainly at year-end last year. It's also important to note that both compression and our steam business has turned the page and are now double-digit profit earners.
I think that's a real tribute to the entire team on the hard work in the quarters and years past to where they all together are able to show numbers like this with growth in orders of just shy of 20% and revenue conversion, of course, just slightly below that year over year, really progressing well. Siemens Gamesa, as mentioned already by Christian, and of course, as I highlighted in terms of orders, this was expected a year-over-year decline in orders. But also of note, and this is something that generated the EUR 34.5 billion of revenue here, wind power did contribute and contributed quite strongly with over 11% revenue growth year over year. And of course, that's on the back of the production facilities coming up to speed and ensuring that we're able to get that output.
Of course, if you recall, all of our production facilities are in ramp-up mode. So, a big tribute here to the team at wind power for getting that really progressing in that regard this past year. And free cash flow, as expected, is at just over -€2 billion. And again, that is as expected in terms of the ramp-up activities, etc. And of course, on the back of the loss, as you see, of the loss of €1.8 billion for Siemens Gamesa. But again, all business areas within expectations met or exceeded their targets. So, a strong year for us across all of the BAs. So, of course, it goes without saying, I would never miss an opportunity to talk about cash. So important for us.
And of course, if you look at last year where we started in a net debt position for the company on the back of the losses, etc., we took immediately proactive measures. And this is something that we reported on each quarter with respect to accelerating some strategic portfolio decisions for the company. And we set up to EUR 3 billion of proceeds from those portfolio decisions. Of course, the first one was with the Siemens India Limited transaction, which is the lion's share, but there were others that contributed to that EUR 2.8 billion. Very pleased with that in terms of execution this year and delivered, as we promised, on those portfolio or those cash ins from those portfolio decisions.
Of course, we can't forget the free cash flow that was generated by our businesses, again on the back of strong profit, but also, of course, with respect to advance payments and positive payment milestones for us with respect to our backlog and, of course, our order intake. And of course, you have tax and other items that need to be factored in when you come to a net cash position, things like leases, things like interest, etc. That's in the tax and others, which then comes for the basis of a strong net cash position, which has been expanded essentially plus just shy of EUR 3 billion year over year with a net cash position of EUR 2 billion for the company at the end of the year. Very happy about that, of course. And this is a net cash position where we would like to stay as a company.
So, with that, I think I will hand over back to you, Christian. Thank you.
Good night, Maria.
Thank you, Maria. As Robin just said, we would like to present the opportunities of Siemens Energy in the energy market. And we've brought some exhibits with us to demonstrate what we're doing. It's important for us to make sure that you bear in mind three things. First, we are positioned excellently as a company in order to benefit from the growth in demand for electricity. Secondly, the broad portfolio that we have from renewable energy through to efficient fossil technologies and the grid in the middle covers all necessities: reliability, sustainability, and affordability of energy supply. Thirdly, as before, we continue to develop new technologies together with partners, which will be needed in the future, but are not yet available commercially today. This is why we spent EUR 1.2 billion last fiscal year on research and development.
Many topics that are covered by this will only be on the public agenda in the next couple of years. We need to bear this in mind, but the energy world needs new innovations if we really want to bring about an energy transition. Now, when presenting the World Energy Outlook 2024 a couple of weeks ago, after the era of coal and oil, we are entering into the era of electricity. We can see this everywhere. The question is how to make electricity affordable, sustainable, and reliable. How can we produce electricity in this manner? We are, of course, convinced that over a longer period of time, we will need to generate electricity from gas. 40% of energy-related carbon emissions are still based on electricity generated from coal. So, if you want to replace coal energy by gas energy, you are talking about reducing related emissions by two-thirds.
You're making a big contribution. We're trying to strike a balance here. This helps us steer our business in terms of what is going to be efficient and what isn't. The demand for electricity has been growing substantially to a tune of 2.7% per year. Going forward, it's safe to assume that electricity consumption of the size of a country like Japan will be added every year. This shows how challenging it is to drive forward this growth. The drivers on the market, of course, are population growth as well as the rise in the standard of living. Electrification of industry, electrification of mobility also demonstrate that electricity is growing faster than energy consumption. You can see that fields such as heat, mobility are switching from other sources of energy to electricity. That means that electricity is growing faster.
If you take into account the fact that the share of renewables in the energy mix is rising, in other words, the capacity that is being installed is growing even faster still, that means that the grids will have to be expanded even faster because they will have to transport the electricity. On top of that, we have seen consumption trends that couldn't be predicted years ago, one being data centers, which are all the rage. To just give you a feeling of what artificial intelligence means, if you create an image using generative AI, you need as much electricity as you would to charge your phone. You've seen pictures of cats on roller blades on the internet, and you can just assume how much electricity is used for that. You can see that huge amounts of electricity will be used by data centers alone.
We address individual needs on the market. We are growing, but we're doing this with good measure. You'll see in a minute what areas we're investing in and how we're investing in them. One thing is clear. The electricity market is at the cusp of huge growth from which we want to benefit with our broad portfolio. How do we want to make sure that it is available, sustainable, and reliable nevertheless? We have defined how to put this into context at Siemens Energy. One is expanding wind energy. We're absolutely convinced that wind energy is indispensable and essential for the energy transition. Secondly, when we speak about renewable technologies, when we speak about grid expansion, then these technologies need huge amounts of raw materials, and they need very resilient supply chains, especially against the backdrop of the high growth rates that we're witnessing right now.
So, this is going to be key. How can we make sure that materials are reused? How can we make sure that supply chains are diversified, especially against the backdrop of geopolitical environments that are so challenging and demanding? Thirdly, the existing infrastructure also has to be integrated into the calculation and the equation. We can't just use everything. We have to transform power plant structures. We have to retrofit power plants. We have to build bridge technologies, and this will be a big lever. The fourth lever relates to everything that is industry: electrification, hydrogen, energy savings. How can we supply solutions in these areas? How can you make use of waste heat to generate electricity? These are the topics that are addressed by Transformation of Industry. The fifth point, and this is our fastest growing business today, is the strengthening of grids.
In 2026, our grid division will be the biggest division at Siemens Energy from our current standpoint, and this is because investment in the grid business is of an order of magnitude that has never been seen before. We mustn't forget that we're building new grids, expanding grids, and in the next 20 years, in the developed and industrialized countries, at least half of the grids will have to be replaced because they are antiquated. This brings us to some examples of how we actually manage to underpin these ambitions with innovations. Let me give you some examples here and actually show them to you. I'd like to start with the wind business. Wind is the area that, especially in Europe, is demonstrating very fast growth. We're talking about 255 gigawatts of electricity generated by wind that is set to increase by 2030 substantially.
We need simplified regulation, and we need investment and also innovation. One such innovation is here. This is part of the blade of a wind turbine. You can see that we have a number of different mats of fiberglass, which are then filled with resin and hardened. We have balsa wood that imparts the necessary stabilization and flexibilization. This rotor blade has to withstand 300 kilometers per hour of wind in peaks. So, they have to be very robust. If wind turbine blades then are disassembled, they are put on landfills, and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of tons of waste. And this, however, is not going to wind up in a landfill. It's a recyclable blade. This development was engineered by Siemens Gamesa. The trick behind it is that the resin that fills the fiberglass mats can be dissolved after the service life of the blade.
The molecule that is hardened basically includes like a push button, and you can then dissolve the resin once the rotor blade isn't used anymore, and then you can produce other products from it. That is going to be decisive. We believe that from 2040 onward, only recyclable blades will be used in the industry because otherwise we will, of course, have a waste problem, and we want to solve it ahead of time. These blades are used in the offshore business. Two years ago, we commissioned the first wind farm with these rotor blades. We are in the process of introducing this technology in the onshore business as well. It costs our customers more money today, which means that we will have to drive down costs by increasing production figures, but we believe that by 2040, there won't be any other alternative in terms of reuse.
This brings me to the second point that I mentioned of the five levers earlier on. We really do have to reuse materials. Our wind turbines have a lot of steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, and resins. And if we don't dedicate ourselves to reuse and recycling, and this also applies to Grid Technologies and other technologies, then the supply chains are going to have a problem. Co-developing this is an integral part of what we need to do to position ourselves successfully on the market. This brings me to the next topic by way of example. I told you that we need efficient natural gas technologies if we want to make the transformation successful. And we also need gas technologies that can be switched to carbon-neutral fuels. Hydrogen combustion is such an example. It's one way of accomplishing this.
This is something that today, of course, is much too expensive. No one can afford it nowadays. But we're not building gas-fired power plants today without being able to supply a solution to converting them later on. This can affect legacy power plants and new power plants. They have to be hydrogen-enabled. What you see here is a cross-section of a burner that is in a gas turbine. This is basically a quarter of what is inside a gas turbine. So, you can see the lances of the burner, which have actually been used in a burner in France in a demonstrator, which was a turbine that used 100% hydrogen. And those turbines can switch between gas and hydrogen. The burner has two standout features. One of which you see is that if I hold it this way, you can see this, the combustion process.
Here you have the lance where the oxygen-fuel mix is introduced, and you have the combustion, and it achieves a special efficiency. The special thing about hydrogen combustion is that this mixture is very reactive. You may remember this from experiments carried out in school. You have a very short flame and a high thermal load. And this explains these signs of wear and tear, this blue hue. Nevertheless, this lasts many hundreds of thousands of hours. And what is also special, as you can see from the geometry, is that this is a 3D-printed burner. We apply this technology to metal printing. You might not expect this at Siemens Energy, but metal printing is important to us because many such technological components cannot be implemented without 3D printing. It takes about 50 hours for such a burner to be printed, and it can actually be put to practical use.
Now, our colleagues in the room can look at this. You can see a lot of measuring points, which demonstrates that this is a test burner. The expert at the end will see that there are signs of wear and tear, that the flame has gone back and forth. These are things that you need to learn when you are in the field of innovation and you want to learn how to innovate. So, this is the next step towards decarbonizing gas technology. Moving from hydrogen, hydrogen use in the gas turbine, we want to go to hydrogen production. And Maria, I think then you could continue.
Thank you, Christian. I'm very pleased, actually, to present a couple of other areas where we're making a difference with respect to sustainability in really technological advancements.
So, here I have with me, and I need to be careful, a little bottle of some fluid. Could you guess what it is? Let's see if perhaps, and I have asked him to participate in this. He will not be harmed, I promise. And I'll be very careful. But all I would like you to do, Jochen, is just smell, okay? Einen Moment bitte. I'm trying to be very careful. Just hold it. And it doesn't, I just won't come near you. You just this. Genau. Genau. We are professionals. Even the CFO can do this, right? What does it smell like? Oil? Gasoline, right? Oil, gasoline. But guess what? It's not oil-based. It's hydrogen-based. Green hydrogen. Very valuable, so I have to be careful as I put it back, yeah? But why is this important?
This hydrogen, actually green hydrogen-based e-fuel, comes from Haru Oni, which is a project that we have in Chile, where we're partnering with others to do exactly this, to develop e-fuels. And the way it's done, and I'm going to put it very simple, is, of course, you need green hydrogen as a base that comes from our electrolyzers, Transformation of Industry . And then, of course, you need green electricity that also comes from us at Siemens Gamesa with our wind turbines. You put that together, and I'm highly simplifying. Christian would be very technical in this regard, but let me highly simplify, where you have to bond the hydrogen to e-methanol, and then with e-methanol, then you convert that with CO2 to an e-fuel. And that is compatible with a traditional combustion engine. So, think of that.
One of the areas, of course, that we're trying to, of course, make less decarbonize and less greenhouse gas emissions is in some very heavy industries like shipping and transportation, like transportation of trucks, etc. We're very excited. Thank you so much for being a willing participant. Very exciting development here. You can say that you smelt an e-fuel based on green hydrogen today. Very good. Next in our decarbonization journey is something that's to the right of me. Now, I've been told I'm not allowed to touch it. You see that there's some very important signatures on this. But this relates to strengthening the grid and our Grid Technologies business. I think we've both highlighted the tremendous growth that's coming with respect to electricity demand and the tremendous opportunity that that is for our Grid Technologies business.
What you have in front of you here is one of our vacuum interrupters or vacuum switchgear for our Blue Portfolio. Why is that important? Well, think of the grids and the transportation of electricity on the grids as the highway, so getting exactly the energy to where it needs to be. And then, as that electricity comes onto the grid, you need, and I'm going to do this because I think of it this way in my head, that you need switches to ensure that you don't overload the grid. But once you switch, generally, there's an arc that happens, a reaction. And in the past, in switchgear for years, there was a highly potent SF6 component that was used to neutralize that arc. Well, here, what you have in front of you is an SF6-free vacuum interrupter.
And what it has inside of it is Clean Air insulation. And the insulation is what actually contains that arc in the clean air, to ensure that we don't have that SF6 anymore in our environment. I mean, it's highly potent, more than 20,000 times more potent than CO2, and unfortunately, stays in the environment for over 1,000 years. So, this is an amazing innovation from our Grid Technologies business. And on the back of the growth in that business, this will become a prominent part of our Blue Portfolio. And of course, we expect to sell many more of these in the years to come. So, with that, I think that is the end of our demonstration of our innovation and how we contribute to sustainability. Coming now back to the Ausblick or to the outlook for the company.
Here, in front of you, we've put in one-page summary where we have the outlook for fiscal year 2025 and the midterm targets for fiscal year 2028. On the left-hand side, looking at the fiscal year 2025, it's very important that for the three Gas Services, Grid Technologies, and Transformation of Industry, we're uplifting the outlook here. You see for Gas Services, 7-9% now revenue growth for the year, profit of 10-12% anticipated. Similarly, for Grid Technologies, 10-12% profit before special items anticipated for next year. Strong double-digit growth continuing of 23-25%. Transformation of Industry, again, on the back of this backlog, strong revenue growth, 11-13%. And of course, 8-10% for the profit. Again, shifting everything forward a year and in even some cases, upgrading based on our strong fiscal year 2024 and the momentum that we see.
Siemens Gamesa, -9% to -5% for revenue growth, again, anticipated on the back of the orders that, of course, we received. And again, this transition as we ramp up for our wind power business. Please don't forget, Siemens Gamesa has just shy of €40 billion in backlog that we need to execute through. So, of course, that revenue will continue. But of course, it's a bit of a mix in terms of the revenue growth next year. Profit before special items for Siemens Gamesa around the -€1.3 billion. What does that mean for us overall as a group? It says we have revenue growth for Siemens Energy of 8%-10% for fiscal year 25 and profit margin for the group staying positive on that positive trajectory of 3%-5%. Net income, here we see it's around break-even, excluding some special items.
Upon the demerger of the Siemens Limited and creating the new Siemens Energy India Limited, excuse me, there will be an impact there. But we want to maintain the net income before special items, and that's why you see it's around break-even. And free cash flow continuing strong, again, on the back of our profit conversion with that order momentum also supporting us, and also included in that cash, of course, is critical investments for our growth and for our future, and then fiscal year 2028, so here's our midterm targets. Here we see for the revenue growth for the groups, you can read it for yourself here. The margins all are stepping up in our midterm targets, and of course, for the group overall, we see a high single-digit to a low double-digit growth for revenue, translating to a solid double-digit profit of 10%-12%.
So, with that, I also will turn back to you, Christian.
Vielen Dank, Maria. Und dann würde ich damit auch. Thank you, Maria. I would also like to come to the end of our joint presentation so that we go into the Q&A session. You see that we're benefiting from global electricity growth. And you can see from the outlook presented by Maria that we are striving for, as we've always said, double-digit margins across our businesses. Siemens Gamesa will take a little longer to reach that target. In 2028, we'll have 3%-5%. This is in part due to the quality problems that we've identified in the recent past. But fundamentally speaking, thanks to our 99,000 highly motivated and competent employees and our broad portfolio, we will manage to provide sustainable and reliable energy supply in the past year.
Looking forward, we have and will be triggering investments, investments in expanding our capacities, investments in the expansion of our gas turbine capacities, investments in our grid capacities. The electrolysis plant was opened last year, as I said before. We're also creating jobs here in Germany. This is reflected in the opportunities for growth prevalent on the market. We still have substantial potential for growth that we keep on looking at. We're trying to strike a balance between growth potential being leveraged without excessive investments. We monitor the situation constantly, and we'll continue to do that throughout the entire year to identify perhaps new possibilities where we can make investments. Our medium-term planning shows that at the end, we will be able to create value for our shareholders over the long term.
This is important for us, and we are pleased that we had such a good fiscal 2024, and this is also a commitment to continue working and walking down this path, and I'd like to thank you so much for your attention so far.
Thank you very much, Christian. Thank you, Maria. Now it's time for your questions. You have different possibilities. Let me explain that to you. First of all, you can ask them here in the room. Just raise your hand. I'll note it down, and then I'll call out your name, and then you can also ask your questions. You can ask the questions in writing, and to do so, you have to go to Ask a Question, click on that, and then enter your question. An important request based on experience from the past.
We know that a lot of employees are following this webcast, customers and partners as well. This one is meant for journalist colleagues. So, we'll see you in the town hall meeting later on. That's when we'll be there for you. So, now it's for the journalists. Now, if you have called a telephone line, you have the call-up data that have been sent out to you. So, please be sure to press on asterisk one. And then you can say that you want to ask a question. Then I will call out your name. If you are in the English language line, please ask your question in English. And then you can also, in the original line, you can ask either in English or German. And that is to say, please mute that when asking a question. Otherwise, we'll have some problems with the equipment.
I'd like to now suggest that we take the first question here in the room, Mr. Frühauf from F.A.Z.
Good morning. I have a question on the special items. You talked about divestments of EUR 2.8 billion, and then you have EUR 2 billion. How do you come up with this figure of EUR 2 billion for the special items? I'd be interested in knowing. You talked about a dividend policy. Do you plan to pay a dividend for the current year? I assume that without special effects this will not be the case. What about the federal guarantees? What about the bonus payments? Are they influenced by that?
Yes, I think that we'll take the first one, and then Maria can talk about the dividend. As I said briefly, when we talk about the federal guarantees, we're not allowed to pay out any dividends. So, we can't even discuss that question.
We have a net income of EUR 1.3 billion, which is actually the basis for our dividend policy, which is 40%-60% of the, which is allocated to the shareholders that would be paid out. But this is something that is not possible this year because of the guarantees from the federal government. We're not allowed to pay out that, no dividends. But we want to exit this as soon as possible. The same relates to bonus payments. There will not be any bonus payments because of these guarantees from the federal government. So, we're looking to the share price. We're happy with the share price. But of course, there's no benefit for us on the executive board. I will take just to provide some clarity on the special items.
With respect to the 2.8 billion that you saw on my net cash slide, that's actually the cash impact.
So, the cash from the disposals rendered around EUR 2.8 billion for us, again, starting with Siemens India Limited back in Q1 and then with the others that came. So, it was the free cash flow. The special items impact that you're talking about of EUR 2 billion is that which is considered in our net income. So, just to clarify if that wasn't clear.
Thank you, Maria. Thank you, Maria. Christian, now another question in the room. Christoph Rohmer from the dpa. Go ahead.
Good morning. I have a question on the topics raised by my colleague. The federal guarantees, by when do you expect to exit these? When do you expect to be able to get bonuses and pay out dividends to the shareholders? And the special items, how are these distributed with regard to 2024 and 2025? And what can we expect that?
What do we expect in the current year? You also talked about a high demand and high backlog. Does that mean that for wind that you will have higher prices and better contracts will be possible for you or not?
Well, I again would like to let Maria talk about the special items, but let me talk about the guarantees as quickly as possible. We're working on this. But of course, you have to realize that this is a huge package, EUR 11 billion. And of course, there is work involved here together with the commercial bank partners as well. So, all I can say is we are working very hard on this, but it's not something we're not talking now about weeks. It will take a certain amount of time to consider all of this. And of course, we have guarantees that we see.
One more point that's important to me, and this is an important one, especially with the grid expansion in Germany. Guarantee instruments are made available. This is independent of the instruments that we have taken advantage of. There is a converter platform. It's called the economic platform. This is grid expansion, so this can be secured. This is essential because all industries are faced with these challenges, higher incoming orders than in the past, and this is something that's going to take time. The prices in wind, well, the prices in wind have developed positively. They've stabilized. We've seen this in offshore, especially in the last auctions in the U.K. We see a level, a price level, which is clearly above the price level in the previous year, and we assume that this will be stable.
And we can certainly say that we still have to talk about affordable prices. But of course, in wind, we will have to also realize the fact that our customers are also dependent on the financing conditions. So, this is a question where the price, the price environment in wind has indeed stabilized and developed positively. If I had it correctly, the question was to further understand the special items in 2024, plus understanding the special items anticipated for fiscal year 2025.
How, when will those EUR 2 billion have their impact? Which part of it was 24? Which part of it?
The EUR 2 billion was the full impact within fiscal year 2024. So, the EUR 2 billion was already included in net income, of course, for this year. And we exclude it from the profit before special items because we see that that's a special item.
Just for, you know, definition's sake, in special items, generally, you have three areas. One is any gains that are anticipated with respect to portfolio changes, M&A, et cetera. Then we also, that is where we have restructuring. So, restructuring charges are generally a special item as well. And then, but this is very low to nothing, is on the integration side. So, any integration costs are deemed a special item. So, that is, so the full EUR 2 billion impact this year, again, on the back of predominantly the portfolio, the strategic portfolio changes that we made. And those are the three items that sit within special items. Yeah, but yeah. Okay. For the fiscal year 2025, of course, when it comes to M&A transactions, this is not budgeted as such. But the special items will go back to really looking at restructuring and very small integration impacts.
It would be about below a low- and mid-triple-digit item for next year.
I was especially referring to Siemens India because you had it in your outlook. How much will Siemens India mean in terms of special items?
Thank you. Thank you for clarifying because the EUR 2 billion. That's actually exactly right. That's a special item that we foresee for this fiscal year 25. Upon the demerger, we're going to now have to change from accounting purposes to at equity to at cost. It's just a book gain. It's really technical in nature. We'll have to write up the remaining 6% that we have of those shares. That, of course, will be a sizable amount for this year. Again, it's a special item, and it will be excluded. Let's clarify this. It will depend on the share price.
So, it's something we cannot predict. It will depend on the development of the share price in the Indian market. That's the logic behind all of this, which is anticipated for around March, April of next year.
Okay.
Thank you very much. And we have Hilken Boran from the BBC in Turkey on the line. Please ask your question.
Hi. Turkish officials say that construction efforts in Turkey's Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant are hampered due to Siemens Energy not fulfilling its contractual obligations. Officials say that this is a deliberate political move. What is your response? And what is your schedule for delivering the parts that Turkey says are missing? Thank you.
Yeah. Do you want me to answer in English or German? Thank you very much for your question.
First of all, just to put it into perspective for others who may not have the background like you, this is related to deliveries towards the nuclear power plants under construction in Akkuyu in Turkey. And that is something where, because of the boundary conditions, we need to apply for export licenses. These have been granted now, right? So, just recently. That is a precondition that we can actually interact. And in that regard, we don't deliberately hold anything back. But that is a process which obviously from export credit rules must be taken. And we are now in discussion with a customer if and when they would want to have a delivery. But obviously, we are always committed to fulfill contractual obligations.
But that is a process which is, let's say, very, very normal, getting the export credit allowance and now stepwise clearing with a customer what's going to happen. Okay. Thanks. We now have a question from the chat, which comes from Laura Pitel from the Financial Times. And she asks regarding Siemens Gamesa. Would you say that this is a turning point for the business? And have you sort of left the crisis behind?
Yeah. First of all, I would say we have achieved everything in 2024, what we wanted to achieve. And also in Siemens Gamesa, and we have not seen any new technical root causes or issues resulting into increased quality cost. That's a good thing. However, I also would always underline we are not through yet in terms of working off the quality matters. We have accrued for that. We have provisions for that.
Now it's over the next years together with our customers working off these matters step after step. We stay, I would say, humble on that and really are aware that this will remain a lot of hard work. Also, the productivity and the factories is not there where I wanted to see at the end. It's really step after step after step. All the work which has been done in 2024 gives me the comfort that the solution of the problem is in our hands and that we can have the capabilities to solve them step after step. I would always obviously caution to say, hey, that's a first step in the right direction. The next are to come. We have an excellent team working on this. As I said, it's a good sign that 2024, everything came out as expected.
Thank you. And Laura, second question is about politics. First, about the U.S. election. Do you expect any impact on Siemens Energy about the president-elect Trump and his new administration? And the second, obviously, is about the government crisis in Germany and the reelection.
Yeah. Happy to do so. First of all, just also to put it in perspective, we are a very local U.S. company. We have 13,000 employees in the U.S. We run 11 factories. We are just investing at the moment, as you speak, in a new factory for transformers in the U.S., which is an important good which is needed in the electricity demand growth in the U.S. So, if the Trump administration brings economic growth, that's good for us because it is related to electricity growth. At the same time, we'll have to see of what some of the decisions are going to be.
And we always have to see also, if I look back on the first term of Trump, actually in the states itself in the U.S., it was the fastest build-out of renewables during that administration. So, I think we have to take it with some patience in terms of seeing what is really the impact. All in all, I think for us, the good thing is we base it on a very competent local workforce and factory infrastructure what we have. Obviously, I think tariffs are never good for anybody. This is also what I see. But for me, the key point is, am I differently positioned than my competitor? And that is something where I say, with no, I think we are well positioned in the U.S. with a local framework.
And the rest is what we're going to manage now on the way to see on how this plays out. But as I said, economic growth would be for us a positive.
Vielen Dank. Damit gehen wir wieder zurück in den Saal.
Let's go back to the room. Axel has another question.
Thank you very much. The first question is similar. And this is the energy transition. Has it lost momentum? And the climate discussion has lost momentum. You're not feeling worried about that because the revenue is distributed differently? Or does this play a role for you in Germany and in the United States? And probably the next ones will be the not focusing so much on the energy transition. And then I have another question on wind. Do you want me to ask that right now? I will go ahead.
You said wind will remain a major share, but the conditions need to be correct. Now, does that mean that do you think that the requirements are going to change from 3%-5%? Or under today's condition, can you say that that is a business that does have a future?
Let me begin with the energy transition. As a human being, I am worried about the current situation because, of course, the climate change has not been focused on as much as before due to the requirements for growth and additional electricity requirements. When we talk about growth there, we also see an increase in CO2 emissions. I'm worried about that. And you just talked about the effects that we see, for example, floods in Spain. This is indeed dramatic.
If you see the involvement in Baku at COP, then it's disappointing because EUR 100 billion is also something that is not what we need to do. No, we need to come up with more and to meet our targets. It is shocking. I must say that it's a question here of how are we going to manage here to make it clear to the population we need growth, affordability, sustainability. All these need to be brought together. What we're trying to do is to say that everything that we do will mean that CO2 should be decreased. That's important to us as a company. That's why I said sustainability is something that we continue to focus on. We can still also focus on gas technologies with efficient methods. As a company, we have an advantage here because no matter what technology is needed, we can be involved.
Of course, you can see this in the figures. If you look at the figures, you can say the profitable areas and the most profitable areas are gas and grid. It's not renewables. Nonetheless, we still believe that renewables are needed. You can see this. Countries such as China, where half of the renewable additions are in China, that they have fast change processes going on. But what is going on right now does not suffice to meet the 1.5-degree goal. We also need to have a successful economic model. All I can do is say we're trying to make this very clear. We're trying to provide the technologies. That's why we're also investing in technologies which are such as electrolysis in Berlin.
This is frustrating as a citizen to see that the energy transition is no longer such a focus in the population. And that's why a lot of people have also certain concerns about this. And this is the responsibility of politicians and corporations to make this clear. Wind, what we've shown you here is that these are things where we can say we have control over this. We can have an impact on this. And another thing is that we assume that these conditions are not going to deteriorate. We don't see an improvement, but we also don't expect a drastic deterioration. But as a matter of principle, we have control over this.
Now we'll take another question from the floor. Martin Hesse from Der Spiegel. Please go ahead.
I'm going to pick up on wind again and the role played by China.
What is your take on the competition from China? How strong do you believe it is on the European market? Have they become more visible than one or two years ago in terms of wind turbines, especially, but also in terms of converters? I would like to know if there are any new entrants and how much of a threat is that for Siemens Energy and other European suppliers? How can you react to this? And how can policymakers react to this? And I have a second question with respect to your power plant strategy, especially after the change in government. How would Siemens Energy be burdened if the law that was proposed was not enacted before new elections? Thank you.
China and the Chinese competition. First of all, I have great respect for the Chinese competition. Technically, they are well-versed. They know how to operate a factory.
I have great respect for them, for those companies as competitors that operate on the international arena. If you look at Chinese wind companies, however, none of them is earning money right now in a very difficult market. So they have similar challenges. The laws of physics apply to them as well. So when you talk about new developments, they talk about the same issues. Nevertheless, as we've seen the competition onshore and offshore in Europe, we have to take it seriously in China as well. In offshore, we've seen the first project, which probably will be implemented by a Chinese company. This is not going to happen overnight because, of course, this also involves investments where customers for a long period of time, 10 to 20 years, if you are granted an award to build a wind farm, you're talking about 10 to 20 years.
So you're talking about the references that you have, the skill sets that you have on site, etc. That's all considered in an award. But these are generally issues that we have to look at. I believe that time and again, there are elements in which we can score. One being the service business. You need a very dedicated service infrastructure to keep a wind farm up and running. But I'm not naive, of course. We will see some competition from China. That makes it all the more important for Germany and Europe to make it clear what role is attached to local value added. We need to establish how important local production is in Europe and how important supply chains are in Europe. We're not talking just about competition. We want to determine what we want to do here as an industrial nation.
We need framework conditions that are amenable to this, including awards. At the end of the day, we need fair underlying conditions. Mr. Hesse, this involves prices, but also contractual conditions, liabilities, obligations over the long term, etc. This all has to strike a balance. We have to keep an eye on this criterion over the long term. As you said before, there are other areas in which Chinese competitors could become active. China has enough capacity to serve the world market in all areas. Nevertheless, it will always be possible to prevail on the international arena. This is a constant topic. Resiliency and security will always play a role, especially when it comes to grids. This is an important topic. Therefore, we are nevertheless confident that we'll be able to prevail. I have great respect for China.
Last week, I was at a big international conference in China. We also have a lot of development planners and partners in China with whom we demonstrate new technologies. So it's always going to be about striking a balance. Oh, that's right. You also wanted to know about our power plant strategy. I don't believe that in 2025 you'll see anything from the power plant strategy. I do not envisage us taking any decisions there. It was envisaged for the beginning of the year in order to get into the award process so that by 2030, we could build gas-fired power plants. It is difficult for me to envisage that this will work in the current constellation. What this means is we will have a delay of the expansion in terms of gas.
And then it remains to be seen how electricity is generated by other means in Germany or imported. But I do believe it will translate into a delay in expansion. That's unfortunate for us. But I think we can manage the situation. As you've seen, this year, we had EUR 16 billion in incoming orders for gas, a lot of which wasn't in Germany. This isn't the biggest market for us. But nevertheless, here again, as a personal individual, I would have wanted this expansion to take place, but it's going to be delayed.
We have two gentlemen asking about the rumors of a potential or alleged sale of the Siemens Gamesa business in India. One is coming from Pepe García from El Economista. And the other one is coming from Mr. Ramesh from the Chennai Business Newspaper out of India.
First of all, India is a market of great strategic importance to us because it is growing very fast locally. Secondly, also because a lot of skill sets are located in India, which we need for our global business. We also invest in new factories in India in various business areas. And therefore, for us, India is in the limelight. And this is why the merger that we triggered with Siemens is so important for the Indian society, the Indian, sorry, Indian company. We want to build up Siemens Energy India. I think that the question was targeted to the wind business specifically. We're looking at options together with our customers, together with our partners as to how to proceed. We haven't ruled anything out. No decisions have been made yet. Anything is possible for us.
Of course, this is something where we have to bear in mind that we have a legacy fleet which needs service. We have projects that need to be taken care of. We stand behind our contractual commitments. We're looking at all of the options, nevertheless, to try and determine whether this can be a successful market given our current structure or whether we will have to forge partnerships or perhaps create entirely different scenarios, maybe exit over the long term. We're looking at everything, but we'll soon know what we're going to do.
Thank you. Before coming back to the room here, I'd like to give a friendly reminder to everyone who is following us via the webcast. If you want to ask a question by phone, you have to press star one to register your request, and we have questions from investors and reporters.
But we'll have an analyst call later on. So we're not going to take analyst questions. We ask of your understanding. I have some more questions with respect to the United States and Trump. What, in your opinion, does the election of Donald Trump mean, especially for the wind business? I think it is justified to assume that at least in offshore and in the onshore business, the sector won't emerge unscathed. What are your expectations? In addition, there's an even stronger push behind local for local. You envisaged opening a rotor blade factory in Virginia. Given the current circumstances, do you think that this may be back on the table? So perhaps you could just say some more on Trump and your expectations. Second, the state guarantees. Want to get out of that as soon as possible. Can you be a bit more specific what that means?
Is that already something that could happen in the current fiscal year that you could get out of that mechanism? And then a third question for you, Mr. Bruch. In Europe, there are some very ambitious targets for renewables expansion through to 2030. 111 gigawatts is what you're talking about. Is that even realistic? What's your opinion on that?
Thank you for your questions. And I'm referring it to us or relating it to us. In the onshore business, you can believe it's good or bad, but we don't have a product right now in the United States. This is one topic. We have said that if we return, it will be with a product update. So this is the advantage of our current situation. We have more to win than we have to lose in the onshore business.
The onshore business, however, is also an area where we saw during the first administration that is determined by the states to a great degree. The Republican states were essential in this. What does this mean? What does it mean for tax credits? We'll have to wait and see. But for us as a company, given the current situation, this isn't a key market as such. We intend for it to become a key market. But given the current situation, we don't see anything as being critical for us. Gas and grids are much more essential right now. In terms of offshore wind, of course, the projects that are being discussed prospectively may well be affected. But these are projects which afterwards will come onto the market in 2029, 2030, 2031. We're in the process of building an offshore wind farm. I don't believe that this will be interrupted.
This is an investment that has already been decided on when it comes to new issues that may be different. 80% of the offshore market is in Europe. However, we mustn't forget that. This is what we're planning on. This is the basis for our capacity utilization when it comes to European projects. And now back to local for local. The Virginia factory is there. We have an assembly factory and a blade factory. Given the current situation, however, they are not being fully utilized. The question was whether to ramp them back up, whether to shut them down. And that'll depend on whether we have orders. But we do have the capacities that we need in order to serve the markets there.
As I said before, fundamentally speaking, we have 11 major factories and plants in the United States across all of the technologies when it comes to renewables expansion in Europe. Now, I'm not talking about the investor side. The essential thing will be the investment decisions that have to be made in an environment that is characterized by an interest environment that is still difficult and framework conditions that are still unfavorable. So I'm skeptical here. The other issue is the speed of implementation that we can achieve. And here, it's safe to say that in terms of grids, a lot of the projects that we're doing are going to be after 2030 in terms of commissioning. So that's where a lot of things will happen. So ambitious targets are good.
But we must assume, and this is why we are harping on gas so much, that not everything is happening as fast as we would like it to.
And over to me for the state guarantees. Look, we have always indicated that this was meant to be temporary in nature, very necessary. We were happy to have it last year, especially in light of the growth that was ahead of us. However, it needs to be stepwise taken into consideration as to how to get off of it. Remember, this is a back guarantee only for which we pay fees. So it actually back guarantees a syndicated facility that we have in place that we're happy to use. But it will take a few, let's say, quarters to ensure that there's stability behind it. And that is certainly our plan.
Also, just as a gentle reminder, I mean, it's open until 2026 in terms of the guarantee. And of course, there's what's called a rundown phase beyond that. But it is clear from our perspective, we want to get out of it, excuse me, as soon as possible and certainly no later than 26. Did you have a third point, if I recall correctly? I can ask a third question. I'd be happy to, of course. Do you have a greater interest now in switching around your shareholder structure? Siemens AG says everything is working well. But are there any discussions with regard to major investors that may become involved in Siemens Energy? That would be interesting. Well, I have to contradict you. We are happy with Siemens AG as our shareholder. And we say that you're selling a major shareholder.
But Siemens as a large shareholder is very positive for us. We're very happy that they're with us on the supervisory board. This is something that is very important to us. We have a lot of interest. We saw interest from a lot of investors. And this is also due to the share price developments. And we are still working on this and discussing things with investors. And a lot of people, non-strategic investors, have also taken a position here as well. And I think interest in an anchor investor, I'm always interested in that. And we have a good situation. We have a good share price development that makes things flexible for us. Right now, we have nothing specific where I could say this is what you have to have a look at. But we will always conduct such discussions.
As you've seen in the past, individual countries are major investors in our company. They've entered and left. But this is also something that plays a role as well because we also have these are important for infrastructure decisions. So we're open for all of this. But as I said today, I can't give you any specifics. Thank you.
The next question, Joachim Herr from the Börsen-Zeitung.
The first question I have is on the fees for the state guarantees. How high were they in the past and last year? And are these included in interest expenses in the profit and loss statement? And the second question, Mr. Bruch, with regard to the medium-term situation, 2.7% increase in electricity, but we're to grow by about 10%. Is this primarily from grids, or is it a question of gaining market share? And if so, in what areas?
Acquisitions, I don't think you've included acquisitions in this guidance. Could this also be something that might come in addition on top? First one. So the fees for the Bund guarantee, again, these are just the flat fees that we need to pay. This is not the actual fees for the guarantees that we have on the facility. That we for last year was about EUR 100 million, more or less, again, depending on usage. And we expect a similar amount for next year and a slight uptake, actually. And on your other question, first of all, no acquisitions are included in these growth plans, but there are investments in expanding our capacity, our own technology, and 2.7%. You always have to consider that this is the growth in electricity consumption.
But behind this, if you talk about additions to renewables, then you have to have even more gigawatts because it's not 8,760 hours per year. So that means that growth in the grid by perhaps to reach a peak and have the right amount of electricity transported at the right point in time has to be higher. But the growth you see in our structures, such as the grids, is higher than the mean growth in consumption. So, of course, this results in a totally different mix in our investments. And that is why you will have seen that grid is the business that's growing the fastest. And this is also the second message we'd like to give you today. Gas is growing again.
We had said flat and shrinking, but now we can say that our gas business is growing because it's needed and because we also are investing in expanding capacities.
Thank you. The next question is Angela Maier from Manager Magazin.
I have a couple of questions. First of all, I'd like to know when you will be when did you set the targets for 2028? And I think this is quite a long way away, 2028. Did I miss something? Maybe you could just tell us that next year. And I'd also be interested in the business at Siemens Energy as a whole, including wind. Will you ever have a 10%-12% margin? Have you ever had that in the past in your history? Not in your history, but if you set a target, then maybe look back. Maybe there were good times for gas turbines.
Did you ever have that amount in the past? And then how comfortable do you feel with these targets? They seem very high to me. So how comfortable do you feel with these targets? And then when it comes to the financial situation, why don't you exit these state guarantees immediately because you're doing all so well? Or how well are you really doing?
The last rating report was from November 2023, where the situation was totally different. And so now we're at triple B minus with a negative outlook. So you're still at the threshold of being non-investment grade. So how are you making all of these growth investments with such a capital situation? How can you manage this? Well, I think we can. Why 2028? Well, at the Capital Market Day in November 2023, we also said what the medium-term targets are for 2028.
We go through budget planning and say, this is how we're going to develop. We don't plan just for one year, but we normally plan medium-term, and this also includes 2028, of course, so why did we select 2028 to make it comparable with the Capital Market Day, the targets that we had then and what we have today? We have to do this because the market expected something different from Capital Market Day, and if you take a look at our plans, and this deviates from this substantially, that's why we have to communicate this and also ad hoc based on the regulations if we then saw that there is a substantial difference between what we said 12 months ago, so it's much more formal, less tactical.
But you can see that the special cycle in the electricity market development, we believe that this is something that's going to drive business in the medium term. And this is also something special, which we have not seen in the past. That's why I said, and we can say that this is the electricity era now. Now, how comfortable do we feel with the targets? Well, we have ambitious targets. But of course, we have a substantiated basis. We just don't pick them out of the blue. We have a specific plan. And if you think about EUR 123 billion in our order backlog, then of course, we know today that we will have revenues in 2025 and 2026 and also 2027 as a result of the backlog. These come from the backlog. And we know what margins they will bring. It will be a lot of work.
I always want to dampen this somewhat. It's something that is going in the right direction step by step. We're executing all of this. We are fully committed to these targets and to achieving these targets. This is not something that is done without substance. I think long consideration. What about the past? We had times again and again where certain business areas did have this profitability, but the art was not to lose it with the others. Portfolio management is always going to be a major issue. We've seen this in recent years. Trench last year, for example, this was a business where we said, we are not going to continue with this. It will continue to be something that we're concerned with. There will be businesses that will have double-digit figures.
But the energy market, the electricity market, they have this potential, absolutely, and we will then also be involved here and positioned here in the years to come and execute the orders, so I think there was another question. How wonderful is our position?
Angela, you're fully right. Looking at last year, we were downgraded to the triple B minus with a negative outlook, and that's exactly in line with what Christian just said. We have to step by step, quarter by quarter, continue to show that stability in our execution, and of course, you also are fully right. We do have an upgraded plan now that will be discussed with other stakeholders, banking partners, including S&P, and those discussions are ongoing, so again, we commit to getting off of that bond facility as quickly as possible.
Maybe to go back to you, Christoph, if possible this year, of course we will. But certain things have to come into place for that to happen. And we won't do that in an irresponsible way. We'll do that stepwise, certainly looking at all of those other areas getting back into place. Another topic that I should mention when it comes to guarantees, the discussions we're having at this point in time versus a year ago are quite different with the various stakeholders. And other governments are actually quite accommodating to some of the guarantee needs that we need in certain other countries. So we haven't stood still. We continue to look at how we can secure other lines and have been quite successful in doing so.
You may have heard about the CESCE facility, for example, in Spain or in EIFO in Denmark, where there are other areas that we're looking at additional guarantee lines accordingly.
Thank you. Before we take the last question from Bloomberg, I would like to address the chat for the sake of good order. Florian Güßgen of WirtschaftsWoche also asked about the U.S. elections. We've already heard a response to that. Keeping in mind that time is running out, Stefan Bauer from Euro is asking when we believe to break even at Siemens Gamesa in terms of the operating profit. Well, as I said before, we believe that we'll break even in 2026. And then, as I said before, we will have an operating margin of 3.5% by 2028. Okay, Bloomberg can take the last question.
I have two brief questions. Mr.
Bruch, with respect to Siemens Gamesa, maybe you can tell us a little bit about the measures taken for the turnaround. How are you progressing here? In particular, there was a discussion or the announcement that this would not happen without reductions at the top. What is the current state of affairs in negotiations? Another question I have is also in relation to Siemens Gamesa. You say that over the long term, you expect a double-digit return. If you look at the medium-term outlook of Siemens Gamesa that they also publish, then Siemens Gamesa doesn't tally with these expectations in terms of profitability. You said that in your speech, or you alluded to in your speech, and also during this Q&A session, that there are various options that are being considered. Maybe you can give us some feel of what direction you tend to go in. Are you looking for a partnership?
Are you considering a sale of a certain business? Maybe you can give us some more insight.
Well, with respect to the measures behind the turnaround, we've already addressed some of these things, resolving quality issues and so forth. What you can also see, and what you'll see in the revenue planning next year, the revenue planning for onshore has been going down. We haven't taken in any new orders there. So we will have a continuous reduction in capacity utilization, and this will go hand in hand with a reduction in positions. And this is something we communicated quite clearly. We're working on this program. Some issues are still being agreed with the employee representations. On top of that, it's quite advantageous that the offshore area is being ramped up at the same time. So we can compensate for certain things.
But in other areas, we have to reduce the number of factories. Sometimes we dispose of factories, which has been done abroad. This is being done, and it will continue to be done in 2025 and 2026. And as I said before, this is in close agreement and coordination with the employee representation. So we're in the midst of this process, and we're taking one step after the other. Next year, we will still have a substantial loss at Siemens Gamesa. This also means, of course, that we are going to continue working on the cost structures. Underutilization cannot be tolerated here. So this gives you a bit of an answer to your second question. A double-digit margin, of course, the quality issues at Siemens Gamesa will mean that we will not have a double-digit return until 2028.
But it's also clear that over the medium term, we have a clear plan leading to the double-digit margin. The offshore wind business is a good example of this. It wasn't in double digits in the past. So that means that this isn't impossible. But it will be impossible if we don't increase productivity and efficiency, etc. This is going to happen, and this is what I'm going to measure the wind business against. We have to solve the problems now. And from where I stand, it's not the right time to discuss structural changes. It'll be impossible to do that because first you have to clean up your own backyard. In my view, you have to measure everything against whether you have a clear path towards a double-digit margin or not. And this applies to every business. And if you don't, then maybe we won't be the best owner.
That has nothing to do with wind itself. It has to do with every area of business because our ambition of a double-digit margin applies to our entire business. Of a brief knock-on question, because for the gas business, you also alluded to the fact that this or that you may also consider disposing of this business. Did I understand you correctly? Gas? Or did I misunderstand you? You misunderstood me. I wasn't aware that I might have said that. Please give me some more pointers. What might have triggered that misconception? Well, I thought you said that you were considering. I don't think you were talking about the United States when you responded to one of the questions about the U.S. You said that you were considering perhaps disposing of gas. No, no, no. I might have misspoken. But no, that's not on the cards at all.
What we constantly look at are the options that exist. Today, this is an important market for us. No, there are absolutely no considerations in that direction.
Okay, thank you very much, Maria and Christian. This brings us to the end of the financial press conference. Thank you very much, everyone, for participating and attending, be it in person or via the telephone. If you have any questions, I see Max Yates asked a question. That was two minutes too late. The press department will take care of that. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the team. There's no good event without a strong team behind the scenes. I'd like to thank you all for that. Aside from that, we would like to invite you to the Q1 press conference. It's a conference call which is going to be on the 12th of February, 2025.
The analyst call will be at 10:30 A.M. with Mr. Bruch and Mrs. Ferraro. You'll be able to see the link on our website to follow it online. I wish you all the best. I hope you enjoy the holiday season and stay healthy. Thank you.