EANS-Adhoc: Solar-Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft für Produktion und Vertrieb von
solartechnischen Produkten
Another quarter of year-on-year volume and revenue
growth, price erosion impacts results.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ad-hoc disclosure pursuant to section 15 of the WpHG transmitted by euro adhoc with the aim of a Europe-wide distribution. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3-month report
02.05.2011
Solar-Fabrik AG (ISIN: DE0006614712) yet again managed to increase volume and revenue in the first quarter 2011. While volume increased by ca. 27% year-on-year, revenue grew by ca. 10% reaching 37.075 million euros (Q1 2010: 33.565 million euros). The price erosion shown in these numbers drove the EBIT to a small loss of 442,000 euros. With financial cost slightly higher than usual the company reports a quarterly loss of 900,000 euros, representing -0.07 euros per share.
The political discussion on feed-in-tariffs and the cost of renewable energy has been dominating the public since the beginning of the year. While the nuclear disaster in Japan has reversed the discussions it has not yet affected actual changes in the market due to the missing link of reliable legislation, e.g. the operating extension of nuclear power stations in Germany as well as the restructuring of the EEG towards 2012, but also the pending modifications to the Italian Energy Bill.
The resulting price erosion since the start of the year could not been completely compensated during the first quarter by sourcing and productivity gains but squeezed the operating margin by ca. 10 percentage points. Therefore the solar systems business in Q1-2011 yielded an EBIT of just -377,000 euros at a revenue level of 36.864 million euros. As a major achievement the export share of the business was pushed to more than 70%. In order to accommodate for shorter term price adjustments the company has started to reduce work hours in some of its German based production lines.
Also due to the price erosion the revenue of the solar cell business slightly decreased to 1.308 million euros in Q1 2011 (Q1 2010: 1.455 million euros), despite a concurrent volume growth of 17%. Squeezed in the middle of a very competitive value chain the corresponding EBIT was reduced to -67,000 euros (Q1 2010: 59,000 euros).
Despite the challenging Q1 environment the Solar-Fabrik executive team still considers the 2011 targets described in the annual report 2010 as being realistic.
The quarterly report for the Q1 period from Jan. 1st through Mar 31st, 2011, will be available on May 12 at the company´s website.
end of announcement euro adhoc --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 (0)761-4000 0
E-Mail: investor@solar-fabrik.de
Branche: Alternative energy
ISIN: DE0006614712
WKN: 661471
Börsen: Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard
Berlin / free trade
Stuttgart / free trade
Düsseldorf / free trade
München / free trade