But the 2.4-billion-mark prescription of sell-offs, spin-offs and downsizing at the 150-year-old group may have still come too late to allow chief executive Heinrich von Pierer to emerge unscathed.

Although von Pierer presented the plan this week, investors see chief financial officer Heinz-Joachim Neubuerger as the architect of the shakeup and the one many put their faith in.

"He is the driving force behind this," said Trudbert Merkel, a fund manager at Deutsche Kapitalanlagegesellschaft GmbH, which holds Siemens shares. "The line Neubuerger is putting through is the right direction. Having Neubuerger on the (management) board gives investors confidence."

Others took an even harsher line on von Pierer. "The market clearly doesn't have confidence in him. You can see that in the share price in the last fewyears," said Christoph Bruns, a fund manager at Union Investmentgesellschaft.

Before this week, the shares had well underperformed the DAX, with a 41 per cent rise in the last 24 months -- versus 81 per cent for the DAX.

However, neither Merkel nor Bruns expected new faces at the top. "Siemens never changes very quickly," Bruns said.

Nevertheless, this week's radical change in direction was seen as an indictment of von Pierer's six years at the helm.

The new plan to jettison about 15 per cent of its business -- activities with turnover of about 17 billion marks and 60,000 employees -- runs directly counter to the course von Pierer had followed, and embraces the kind of redefinition that competitors have seized on and many analysts had pleaded for.

Even as recently as early 1998, von Pierer still insisted Siemens did not need to dump whole divisions as General Electric Co does regularly, and as European neighbours Philips and Ericsson have done in the past few years.

Von Pierer often said Siemens'advantage was having a portfolio of eight industries from lightbulbs to locomotives, although analysts nagged Siemens to strip out the losers.

The first sign of dramatic change came in a 10-point programme outlined in July -- five months after Neubuerger became finance chief.

Instead of trying to leverage links between divisions, the group is now taking a harder line on returns and putting less stock in tradition. The largest chunk to be spun off, a semiconductor unit wracked by losses and free-falling prices, was often an example of Siemens synergy because it supplies chips to its computer and communications units.

Under the new thinking, the chip unit will be floated, putting buoyancy in profitability. "The group's return on capital will jump strongly as semiconductors is very capital-intensive," BNP analyst Alexander Blaich said.

Siemens will need that boost after 1997-98 results showed sales of 117 billion marks, and net profit of 900 million marks after restructuring charges.

But even with theshakeup, Siemens may still trail the performance of other industrial conglomerates, analysts said.

"This should bring significant improvements. Maybe not the kind of profit you see at American companies, but a definite improvement," said WestLB's Adrian Hopkinson.

Backed by four billion marks in charges, Siemens' plan also earmarks its copper cable, Siemens Nixdorf retail systems, and passive and electromechanical commponents units for disposal.

Yet some investors are still looking for more. "We had hoped that (the) announcement represented only the first half of the restructuring," Blaich said.

Bruns, the Union Investment fund manager, added: "They've had a lot of restructurings in the past. The problem is getting results."