On basis of its provisional consolidated financial statements, the Nordex Group closed 2011 in line with its current forecast. In November 2011, the Management Board announced that Nordex would be reporting lower sales and an operating loss of around € 10 million for the year as a whole.
The 5% decline in sales to € 921 million is chiefly due to project postponements in Southern €ope and the relatively weak starting point early on in 2011. At the beginning of 2011, the order book amounted to € 411 million. In addition, order intake in China dropped by 80% in the course of the year, leading to a 57% 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.
Nordex was able to partially cushion the effect of the general pressure on prices in the wind power industry by establishing a comprehensive cost-cutting programme, with which it wants to trim its product costs by up to 15% by the end of 2012. As a result, the gross margin remained above 25%. At the same time, structural costs rose by 16.9% to € 264.2 million (previous year: € 219.6 million). Together with the lower sales, this trend exerted pressure on operating earnings, resulting in a loss of € 10.3 million before interest, taxes and one-offs (previous year: EBIT of € 40.1 million). Nordex responded to this at the end of 2011 by implementing a further cost-cutting program to reduce structural costs by € 50 million. In this connection, 253 full-time jobs were cut, resulting in one-off expense of € 13.1 million. Moreover, R&D expense of € 6.3 million for an offshore turbine was not capitalised. Nordex is currently engaged in talks with potential partners with a view to integrating its offshore business in a joint venture. However, the negotiations have not yet reached a stage indicating the imminent execution of these plans. Total loss at the EBIT level after one-offs thus stands at € 29.7 million.
With the 32% increase in order intake to € 1.1 billion, the value of firm orders in hand also rose by 70% to € 698 million (previous year: € 411 million). On this basis, the Management Board assumes that sales will grow to € 1.0 - 1.1 billion this year. Depending on sales volumes and future trends in turbine prices, an EBIT margin of 1 - 3% is expected.
The 5% decline in sales to € 921 million is chiefly due to project postponements in Southern €ope and the relatively weak starting point early on in 2011. At the beginning of 2011, the order book amounted to € 411 million. In addition, order intake in China dropped by 80% in the course of the year, leading to a 57% 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.
Nordex was able to partially cushion the effect of the general pressure on prices in the wind power industry by establishing a comprehensive cost-cutting programme, with which it wants to trim its product costs by up to 15% by the end of 2012. As a result, the gross margin remained above 25%. At the same time, structural costs rose by 16.9% to € 264.2 million (previous year: € 219.6 million). Together with the lower sales, this trend exerted pressure on operating earnings, resulting in a loss of € 10.3 million before interest, taxes and one-offs (previous year: EBIT of € 40.1 million). Nordex responded to this at the end of 2011 by implementing a further cost-cutting program to reduce structural costs by € 50 million. In this connection, 253 full-time jobs were cut, resulting in one-off expense of € 13.1 million. Moreover, R&D expense of € 6.3 million for an offshore turbine was not capitalised. Nordex is currently engaged in talks with potential partners with a view to integrating its offshore business in a joint venture. However, the negotiations have not yet reached a stage indicating the imminent execution of these plans. Total loss at the EBIT level after one-offs thus stands at € 29.7 million.
With the 32% increase in order intake to € 1.1 billion, the value of firm orders in hand also rose by 70% to € 698 million (previous year: € 411 million). On this basis, the Management Board assumes that sales will grow to € 1.0 - 1.1 billion this year. Depending on sales volumes and future trends in turbine prices, an EBIT margin of 1 - 3% is expected.