Siemens Energy plans 10,000 new hires for electricity grid unit

A recording light of a TV camera is flashing red as Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch addresses the annual results news conference in Munich, Germany, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Leo Simon/ File Photo

(Reuters) -Siemens Energy plans to recruit more than 10,000 employees as it invests 1.2 billion euros ($1.29 billion) in its electricity grid business over the next six years amid a surge in demand for power, a company executive said on Tuesday.

"In the next 15 years, we will see global investments in the grid as large as those made in the last 150 years," said Tim Holt, head of Grid Technologies.

"We want to participate in this boom," he said.

The Grid Technologies division has earmarked the 1.2 billion euros for new factories and higher manufacturing capacity in the United States, Europe and Asia, according to the Financial Times, which had reported on the recruitment plans earlier in the day.

About 40% of the new jobs will be added in Europe, while the U.S. and India will each receive 20% and the rest will go elsewhere in Asia and Latin America, according to the FT report.

A spokesperson for Siemens Energy told Reuters the jobs in Europe would be created in Germany, the UK, Austria, Croatia and, to a lesser extent, Romania.

There could be some hold-ups in getting backing for expansion and refurbishment plans from capital markets hesitant to fund energy transition investments, the FT report said, quoting Holt.

"The market is getting tighter and tighter and we are going to have to look at alternative ways to fund it," he told FT.

Siemens Energy, which was spun off in 2020, has seen its shares fluctuate massively as it grapples with issues at its loss-making wind turbine business Siemens Gamesa, which in May unveiled sweeping changes as it strives for profitability.

($1 = 0.9318 euros)

(Reporting by Miranda Murray in Berlin and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)