UPDATE 1-Siemens plans to cut consulting and IT costs
ju4 wa4i dia4n zo1ng he2 ba4o da4o :\n  (adds details, background, share price)\nFRANKFURT, June 4 (Reuters) - Siemens AG <SIEGn.DE> plans to\ncut spending on consultants and IT to help trim selling, general\nand adminstrative costs by 1.2 billion euros ($1.9 billion)\nwithin two years, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.\nThe Munich-based company wants to halve costs for\nconsultants to less than 300 million euros, Joe Kaeser said in a\npresentation to analysts that was posted on its website.\nThat did not include expenses for legal advisers such as\nU.S. law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, hired by Siemens to\ninvestigate a corruption scandal within the company, he said.\nEurope's biggest engineering group is under investigation by\nauthorities in several countries over payments supposedly made\nto consultants between 1999 and 2006 that are suspected of being\nbribes. Siemens itself is investigating transactions worth 1.3\nbillion euros.\nSiemens also wants to reduce IT costs to around 1 billion\neuros from 1.3 billion euros last year, Kaeser said. He did not\nelaborate on where the remaining 600 million euros in targeted\nsavings will come from.\nKaeser said only he saw potential for more savings in the\nreorganisation of the company as the number of legal entities\nwill be reduced to 1,000 from 1,800 and reporting units cut to\naround 500 from 900 by 2010.\nSiemens is in the midst of a restructuring programme\ndesigned to slim down the company and match profitability of\nrivals such as General Electric <GE.N>.\nKaeser said he expects Siemens' divisions to deliver a mixed\nperformance this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.\nThe automation business A&D is expected to show continued\nmomentum while the energy division will face some volatility in\nsupply and demand and new capacities coming into the market\ncould impact pricing.\nU.S. healthcare cuts would take its toll on Siemens' medical\nbusiness and continue well into the coming year, Kaeser said but\nadded that long-term prospects for the division were "intact".\nSiemens stock was down 1.2 percent at 70.77 euros at 1340\nGMT, in line with the German blue-chip index <.GDAXI>.\nKaeser stuck to its targets for this fiscal year. Revenue,\nexcluding acquisitions, is expected to grow twice as fast as\nglobal economic growth. But full-year group profit from\noperations and income from continuing operations will be flat.\n(Reporting by Jens Hack and Nicola Leske; Editing by Jason\nNeely)\n((nicola.leske@thomsonreuters.com; 49 69 7565 1214; Reuters\nMessaging: nicola.leske.reuters.com@reuters.net))\n($1=.6411 Euro)\nKeywords: SIEMENS SAVINGS/