EANS-News: Nordex reports slight growth in sales and a 50% increase in order
backlog in the first half of the year
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Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely
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Financial Figures/Balance Sheet/Half year report
Subtitle: Market share gained in new business
Firm order backlog up 50% to EUR 873 million
Widening gross margin in Q2
Double-digit increase in EBIT in the Europe segment
7.5% decline in working capital
Guidance confirmed by the Management Board
Rising capacity utilisation will underpin return to profitability in H2
Hamburg (euro adhoc) - The Nordex Group (ISIN: DE000A0D6554) posted a 4.4
percent increase in sales to EUR 421.1 million in the first half of 2012 (2011:
EUR 403.3 million). This growth was driven by the Company's core European
market, where sales grew by 17.2 percent to EUR 338.2 million.
At EUR 522 million, new orders remained steady at the previous year's good
level. Consequently, the Nordex Group is outperforming the wind power indus-try
as a whole, which sustained a decline of roughly 30 percent in new busi-ness.
The strong order intake resulted in a 50 percent increase in the firmly
fi-nanced order book, which rose to EUR 873 million (30 June 2011: EUR 581
million). Including conditional orders of EUR 1.4 billion, the order book
amounted to a total of EUR 2.3 billion as of the reporting date.
In the first half of the year, a loss of EUR 13.1 million was sustained at the
EBIT level (previous year: EBIT of EUR 1.6 million), chiefly as a result of
pres-sure on turbine prices and lower capacity utilisation. However, the loss
was reduced to EUR 4.2 million in the second quarter (Q1/2012: EUR 9.0 million)
due to increased business volume in the course of the year and an improvement of
2.4 percentage points in the gross margin. In addition, the decline of 14
percent in structural costs to EUR 94.7 million (2011: EUR 109.8 million)
resulting from the reduction in other operating expenses had a favourable
effect. Earnings differed according to segment. In Europe, operating earnings
rose at a double-digit rate. The consolidated loss after interest and taxes
amounted to EUR 23.3 million (2011: loss of EUR 4.1 million).
As planned, the work on a large number of projects for short-term completion
temporarily tied up liquidity, which therefore declined to EUR 175.1 million as
of the reporting date (31 December 2011: EUR 212.0 million). Working capital
improved by 7.5 percent to EUR 236.3 million (31 December 2011: EUR 255.4
million). The net cash outflow from operating activities improved substantially
to EUR 4 million (previous year: outflow of EUR 122.4 million).
Nordex continues to expect that full-year sales will grow to EUR 1.0 - 1.1
billion in 2012 (2011: EUR 921 million). This figure is chiefly covered by the
firm orders in hand. However, the upper edge of this range will only be achieved
in the event of an acceleration in the pace at which projects are executed. In
the first half of the year, a few customers had postponed individual projects.
The Management Board expects further new orders of between EUR 480 and 580
million in the second half of the year, thus confirming the previous guidance of
full-year order intake of up to EUR 1.1 billion in 2012. The rising capacity
utilisation cause the operating margin to increase to 1 - 3 percent.
Further inquiry note:
Ralf Peters
Head of Corporate Communication
Tel.: +49 (0)40 300 30 15 22
rpeters@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