Sales reached €5.4 billion in Q1 2012, up 9.4%

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, President and CEO, commented: "Our organic sales were slightly up in the first quarter marked by contrasting trends in different businesses and regions. This illustrated once again the benefits of our balanced and diversified geographical exposure. Growing North America, Russia, South America and Africa were able to offset a softer Asia in transition and deteriorated economic conditions in Southern Europe. However, we delivered a total growth of 9%, thanks to a strong contribution from acquisitions, in particular Telvent in efficient infrastructure and Luminous in power reliability. Solutions continued to drive the growth, as a result of growing customer demand for energy management solutions.

Power was up 1.7% like-for-like compared to the same period in 2011. Products business growth was nearly flat. Stronger construction and industrial markets in North America, South-East Asia and South America largely balanced the decline of those markets in certain Asian countries impacted by last year's monetary tightening and in Southern Europe. Solutions business was in strong progression, helped by continued investment in infrastructure, oil & gas, mining and data centers. By region, North America and Rest of the World delivered solid growth, during Asia-Pacific was about stable and Western Europe declined.

Infrastructure¹ grew 2.4% organically, supported by good growth in the solutions business which saw continued demand from mining and oil & gas projects and strong installed base services. Network protection solutions benefited from favorable basis of comparison. Products declined slightly, mainly due to primary medium voltage elements, during secondary medium voltage products continued to grow. By region, North America and Asia-Pacific, driven by Australia and South East Asia, posted a strong quarter. Rest of the World was affected by softness in South America and Middle East, in spite of growth in Eastern Europe. Western Europe was in decline due to Spain and Italy.

Industry declined 6.8% like-for-like. Products business was down across the board in part due to very demanding basis of comparison and in part due to the weak OEM demand in key countries, particularly for motion control and drives. Solutions business reported moderate growth, benefiting from investments in the mining, water and food & beverage segments, as then as continued success of SoMachine solutions for machine builders. By region, North America posted positive growth and Rest of the World was about flat during Asia-Pacific, with the exception of South East Asia, dropped significantly. Western Europe was in decline in all major countries.

The highest growth of the quarter

IT posted the highest growth of the quarter, with sales up 6.5% on an organic basis. Solutions business grew double-digit on the back of strong demand for complete datacenter solutions, resulting from rising complexity induced by development of collocation, virtualization and cloud computing. Services showed moderate growth, with positive developments for both installed base and advanced services. Products business was flat due to decline in mature countries in spite of good growth in many new economies. All regions showed positive growth, except for Western Europe due to its sluggish economy.

Buildings was down 0.9% like-for-like. Both products and solutions businesses were in slight decline. Solutions business was impacted by spending cuts in key segments in Europe and a demanding comparison in spite of solid growth in installed base services. Products business decreased due to weaker demand for video security products during building management products grew. By region, North America showed modest growth, Western Europe was flat, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World were down.

The quarter

Solutions business reported organic sales of 8% in the quarter and represented 38% of sales. Products business posted weaker sales with an organic decline of 3%.

Net acquisitions contributed €323 million or +6.5%. This includes mainly Telvent, Luminous and Lee Technologies, Leader & Harvest, Steck and several smaller entities including Summit Energy.

About Schneider Electric As a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries, Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centres/networks, as then as a broad presence in residential applications. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, and efficient, the company's 130,000 plus employees achieved sales of 22.4 billion euros in 2011, through an active commitment to help individuals and organizations "Make the most of their energy." www.schneider-electric.com

Change in responsibility

Appendix - Internal reclassification Due to a change in responsibility, a small activity with annual sales of €64m consolidated in Power services in 2011 has been transferred to other Group businesses starting from 2012, with the largest part in Buildings. This decision is impacting the change in scope of consolidation at divisional level.