FRANKFURT: German engineering group Siemens is planning to shake up its national entities and reorganize international operations into 20 regional centres, a German daily newspaper reported.

The goal is to bundle several countries into regional clusters such as combining Siemens’ activities in Austria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic into an eastern Europe group, Die Welt reported on Tuesday without citing sources.

France, Italy and Spain would also be formed into a regional centre while larger markets such as the United States and Germany would remain unchanged. The paper said Chief Executive Peter Loescher would announce the new structure at the end of next month when Siemens was due to report fiscal second-quarter results. Siemens was not immediately available for comment.

The trains-to-lightbulbs conglomerate, which is active in more than 190 countries, is in the midst of its biggest restructuring in nearly two decades.

Loescher has set himself the task of slashing needless bureaucracy and slimming down the company to catch up with more profitable rivals such as General Electric.

Loescher has so far scaled down the management board and regrouped the company’s 10 units into three major divisions: industry, energy and healthcare.