The Swiss engineering company is in a "heavy-lifting phase", Voser said, completing the separation and sale of its power grids business to Hitachi, and on Tuesday announcing a deal to quit solar energy inverters.

"There are clear headwinds in some of the end market segments in which we are operating," Voser said in an interview. "You can see a slowdown in the automotive sector around the globe, which affects the robotics market and we will feel this at some stage as well."

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)