Figures for the year ending September 30th show turnover at the Siemens group up by over 12% to £2.4bn. A growing proportion of this - now 40% - comes from service businesses, including FM, maintenance, outsourcing and PFI involvement.

Alan Wood, chief executive of Siemens plc, says the intention is to drive this figure up to 50% within the next two years.

Good results were achieved despite the company's central role in the highly publicised computer problems at the Passport Agency over the summer. Siemens was contracted to supply the new processing system which became the focus of blame for lengthy delays.

Profits were also up last year, and the company achieved an "economic added value" of over £20M. This is a measure Siemens uses to determine whether its net operating profits after tax are sufficient to fund the true cost of capital, taking into account a series of influencing factors.

Elliott Chase