Siemens Healthineers cuts 2026 outlook on Chinese market woes

By Simon Ferdinand Eibach

May 7 (Reuters) – Siemens Healthineers cut its full-year revenue growth outlook for the 2026 financial year on Thursday, with the company’s diagnostics division struggling in China prompting spin-off considerations.

Shares of the company fell 3.3% after the results were announced.

The Chinese diagnostics market, which accounts for 10% of the company’s revenue and is its second largest after the U.S., was hit by lower reimbursement rates and volume-based procurement that depressed prices.

The hit caused the division’s revenue to decline by 6.5% to 985 million euros year on year, the company said.

The company also expects more pronounced inflation in the year ahead.

The German medical technology company forecast a revenue growth of between 4.5% and 5.0% from the earlier outlook of between 5% and 6%. The firm also cut its expected earnings per share range to 2.20 to 2.30 euros from 2.20 to 2.40 euros.

CEO Bernd Montag said the diagnostics division is facing a “perfect storm” as the segment is also impacted by an ongoing transformation. “We can be an owner of this business, but we don’t have to be an owner of this business,” Montag said while also highlighting a synergetic core.

The Erlangen-based company also reported a 3.8% decrease in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes for the second quarter to 5.681 billion euros, missing LSEG consensus expectations of 5.77 billion euros.

Chief Financial Officer Dr. Jochen Schmitz said in an analyst call that the company saw a significant decline in China in the third quarter of 2025.

Schmitz forecasted additional costs in supply chains at approximately 5 cents per share in profit this year, due in part to memory chips, raw materials and logistics costs.

(Reporting by Simon Ferdinand Eibach; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Harikrishnan Nair)