The task of turning around the German electronics and transport AEG AG group is still far from complete following losses at the equivalent of $119m on sales up 7% to $7,598m during 1990, with cut-backs increasingly focused on the loss-making office and communication divisions. At an annual press conference in Frankfurt, president Ernst Stockl stated flatly that we have missed our target of improving results, before pinpointing the cause of the losses as structural deficits in the Automation and Microelectronics units. But Stockl hopes that by concentrating entrepreneurial and business efforts, the company could attain financial independence from Daimler-Benz AG as soon as possible – Daimler is currently under contract to provide outstanding AEG shareholders with a dividend the equivalent of 20% of the Daimler-Benz figure – for 1990 this works out at $1.45. As for the concentration of efforts, AEG is looking towards geographical expansion in its core electrotechnical systems and components, and industrial automation businesses, with mid-term growth expected particularly from the former Eastern bloc countries. At the same time, things look to be heading towards a complete disbanding of the Office and Communications Systems unit, which showed increasing losses through 1990. Talks to spin off the Olympia Office arm, which has been a chronic money drain since the late 1970s, are already in advanced stages, with special interest shown in the sales and service organisations. Similarly, AEG Mobile Communication has been deemed unfit to meet the demands of a Single European market alone, and Stockl revealed that the necessary talks have been initiated to find a partner here as well. Stockl seemed to be suggesting that while a buyer had been found for the sales and services activities of Olympia, nobody had expressed an interest in the manufacturing plant itself in Wilhelmshaven. Attempts to offer the plant to other divisions of Daimler Benz had, he continued, been unsuccessful as well. Now in a last ditch effort to save at least some of the investment and jobs at the Olympia facility, AEG is opening up the facility to companies outside the Daimler group. If successful, Stockl foresees the creation of Wilmhelmshaven industrial park, with, presumably, other businesses renting or buying Olympia premises, and taking on Olympia’s superfluous employees – but an interim period of heavy unemployment seems certain.
