SIEMENS, EUROPE’S biggest engineering group, has held talks with sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf, Russia and other regions in an attempt to expand its long-term investor base.

Joe Kaeser, chief financial officer, said the German industrial conglomerate “would very much welcome an active involvement” by such funds. The prospect of a sovereign wealth fund taking a large stake in a company as prominent as Siemens could prove politically contentious in Germany, where the growing influence of the funds has been heatedly debated.

Just last week the German cabinet adopted a Bill that would allow the blocking of non-European investors trying to buy a stake of more than 25 per cent in a German company.

In Ireland, Siemens employs more than 1,100 people at offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.

But such a deal could boost business opportunities in some of the world’s fastest-growing regions for Siemens. Its interest in such a move has increased since last month when US rival General Electric announced a deal with Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s increasingly powerful investment vehicle. – (Financial Times service)