Siemens lifts full year profit guidance

MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens raised its full year profit guidance on Wednesday - citing a strong first half of the year helped by a 900 million euro ($1.07 billion) gain from transferring its stake in IT services company Atos SE to its pension fund.

The German engineering group said it now expected full year earnings per share in the range of 7.70 euros to 8 euros per share ($9.13 to $9.48), up from its previous guidance of 7.20 euros to 7.70 euros. Siemens EPS for its 2017 business year was 7.44 euros.

In the three months ended March 31, Siemens reported net profit of 2.02 billion euros, beating the forecast for 1.11 billion euros in a Reuters poll.

The net results included a gain of 900 million euros Siemens made from transferring the roughly 12 percent stake it held in French IT services company Atos to its pension fund.

($1 = 0.8437 euros)

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Maria Sheahan)