Siemens raises around $1.5 billion from selling Siemens Healthineers stake

(Reuters) -German engineering company Siemens is selling a 2% stake in healthcare subsidiary Siemens Healthineers, it said on Wednesday, raising roughly 1.45 billion euros ($1.5 billion) that could help pay for its acquisition of U.S. software firm Altair Engineering.

The sale of 26.5 million ordinary shares, via a private placement, will reduce Siemens' stake in the medical equipment maker, which it listed in 2018, from 75% to 73%.

Siemens said the proceeds will be used for "general corporate purposes." The sum is likely to go towards last year's $10.6 billion acquisition of Altair, the second biggest acquisition in its history.

Siemens CEO Roland Busch said last week that Siemens would likely reduce its stake in Healthineers by around 5% this year, and also offload 6% of its holding in Siemens Energy.

Siemens has recently reduced its holding in Siemens Energy from 15% to 14.3%, and has said it will gradually reduce its holding during 2025.

Siemens Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas told analysts last week that the company would give a strategic update of what the company would do with its holding in Siemens Healthineers at its investor day on December 9.

($1 = 0.9610 euros)

(Reporting by John Revill,Andrey Sychev and Urvi Dugar; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Stephen Coates)