EANS-News: Nordex SE Nordex records a strong increase in orders in the first
quarter and will focus on the profitable core business
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Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely
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Financial Figures/Balance Sheet
Subtitle: Preliminary figures confirmed by the final consolidated financial
statements
2011: outperformed industry trend with a 50% increase in orders in Europe
2012: Management Board forecasting a 10-20% rise in sales and a return to
profit
Order intake increased by 84% to EUR 284 m in Q1 2012
Hamburg (euro adhoc) - Hamburg, 2 April 2012. The new Chief Executive Officer of
Nordex SE (ISIN: DE000A0D6554), Dr. Jürgen Zeschky, presents the group accounts
for the first time today. In addition, Zeschky underscores that the Management
Board, acting with the approval of the Supervisory Board, has decided to
continue on the path of strategic reorientation already announced in recent
months. Nordex will focus on its profitable core business in turbines for
onshore wind farms. The company has been in talks about combining its offshore
activities in a joint venture since summer 2011. Nordex is continuing
negotiations with the aim of an intensive cooperation with its potential
partner.
With this decision, Nordex wants to concentrate on developing new efficient
products for onshore business in order to reinforce its competitiveness. With
over 95 percent of the market in 2011, the onshore segment dominated the wind
power industry in 2011. At the same time, many offshore installations have been
postponed and new business declined by roughly 60 percent. For Nordex, this
course reflects a conscious continuation of efforts to reduce its development
risks.
At the same time, the Company has released its final consolidated financial
statements for 2011, which confirm the preliminary figures published in
February. Thus, consolidated sales declined by 5% to EUR 921 million due to
project postponements in Europe and the relatively muted order backlog at the
beginning of 2011. In addition, order intake in China dropped by 80% in the
course of the year, causing a 44% drop in sales in Asia. On the other hand, US
sales doubled, although this was not sufficient to fully make up for the
declines recorded in other regions.
At the same time, order intake developed positively, rising by 32 percent to EUR
1,007 million. Nordex was able to defy market trends, particularly in Europe,
recording an increase in new business of over 50% to EUR 856 million in this
region. Accordingly, the order book amounted to around EUR 700 million at the
end of the year (previous year: EUR 411 million), thus providing a solid basis
for the sales growth planned for this year. This is additionally re-inforced by
the expected pleasing marketing success in the first quarter of 2012, during
which order intake rose by 84% to EUR 284 million (Q1/2011: EUR 154 million).
An operating loss of EUR 10.3 million was sustained at the the EBIT level before
exceptional expenses and a non-recurring item (previous year: EBIT of EUR 40.1
million). This was chiefly due to lower market prices for wind turbines and
reduced capacity utilisation together with higher structural costs. In the third
quarter, Nordex launched a programme to lower structural costs by EUR 50 million
to bring them into line with sales. This resulted in exceptional expense of EUR
13.1 million. The non-recurring effects of EUR 6.3 million comprise
non-capitalised development expense for an offshore turbine. In the Europe
segment, Nordex achieved adjusted operating earnings of EUR 4.1 million. A
consolidated loss of EUR 29.7 million was sustained at the EBIT level after
exceptional expenses and non-recurring items. Nordex plans to address the
ongoing price pressure in the market by lowering its product costs and
developing more efficient turbines.
On the strength of the Company´s solid order book, the Management Board assumes
that sales will grow to EUR 1.0 - 1.1 billion this year. Depending on sales
volume and the development of turbine prices, an EBIT margin of 1 - 3% is
expected. In the medium term, Nordex wants to improve further its profitability,
materially aided by the accelerated development of onshore turbines for
different wind classes and attractive market segments.
Further inquiry note:
Felix Losada
Tel.: +49 (0)40 300 30 1141
flosada@nordex-online.com
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: Nordex SE
Langenhorner Chaussee 600
D-22419 Hamburg
phone: +49 (0)40 30030-1000
FAX: +49 (0)40 30030-1101
mail: info@nordex-online.com
WWW: http://www.nordex-online.com
sector: Alternative energy
ISIN: DE000A0D6554, DE0000A0D66L2
indexes: TecDAX, CDAX, HDAX, Prime All Share, Technology All Share, ÖkoDAX
stockmarkets: free trade: Berlin, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart,
regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English