Siemens CEO Chasing U.S. Gas Boom Has ‘Firepower’ for Deals

Siemens AG Chief Executive Officer Joe Kaeser said he’s prepared to make acquisitions to exploit a boom in the U.S. natural-gas industry that will eclipse demand in Europe, where the economy is still struggling to rebound.

As more facilities spring up across the U.S. to extract, transport and store shale oil and gas won from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Siemens must keep up to expand its own offering, Kaeser said in an interview yesterday in Frankfurt. Supplying more gas and oil equipment would give the company a lock on lucrative, long-term service contracts, he said.