Nordex Doubles Sales in the First Half of the Year - Earnings Heavily Burdened by COVID-19

Hamburg, Germany - The Nordex Group has presented its figures for the first half of 2020. Although the Hamburg-based RENIXX Group has been able to achieve strong growth in sales, earnings are slipping well into the red. Nordex explains the decline in earnings with the COVID 19 pandemie.

Revenues doubled to EUR 2.0 billion in H1 2020 - EBITDA at minus EUR 70.8 million

In the first half of 2020 (H2 2020), the Nordex Group doubled its sales to EUR 2.0 billion (H1/2019: EUR 990.8 million). According to Nordex, this increase is primarily due to the substantially higher output of installed wind power systems in H1 2020. Earnings before interest, depreciation, amortization and taxes (EBITDA) slipped sharply into negative territory at EUR -70.8 million in the first half of 2020 (H1 2029: EUR 17.1 million). This results in an EBITDA margin of -3.5 percent for the first half of 2020 (H1 2019: 1.7 percent). Nordex cites the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic as the reason for the loss in the first half of the year, which had a considerable impact on its business operations in Q2 2020.

Credit from guarantee program hedges against the effects of COVID-19

With the guarantee granted by the German federal government and the states of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and Hamburg, the Nordex Group received a revolving credit facility of EUR 350 million. As a result, Nordex sees itself well protected against the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on its business operations and remaining uncertainties. In this connection, the Nordex Group has also already reached a binding agreement to refinance the promissory note due in April 2021. Together with the EUR 1.2 billion guarantee credit facility extended by three years in April 2020, the Company now has a strong financial structure for the medium term. At the end of July, the Nordex Group also agreed the sale of its European project development portfolio to RWE. The proceeds of around EUR 402.5 million (before taxes and fees) expected from the completion of this transaction will strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and support its growth trajectory.

"While processes have normalized or been recalibrated again, the pandemic remains a burden and provides an element of uncertainty," says Nordex CEO Nordex José Luis Blanco. The new credit line supported by the Corona guarantee program is protecting the Company against the effects on its operations and the remaining uncertainties caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. "Hence we are confident, that Nordex remains on its growth trajectory even under these circumstances," says Blanco, giving an outlook on the Company's future performance.

Installations increase substantially to almost 2,300 MW - order backlog continues to climb

The Nordex Group closed the first half of 2020 with new orders for projects (excluding service) of 2,531.9 MW (H1 2019: 3,038.4 MW) worth around EUR 1.81 billion. At the end of the first half of the year, Nordex had a total order book of EUR 8.1 billion (H1 2019: EUR 7.6 billion). Of this, the Projects segment accounted for EUR 5.4 billion (H1 2019: EUR 5.3 billion) and the Service segment for EUR 2.7 billion (H1 2019: EUR 2.3 billion).

In the first six months of 2020, the Company increased production in turbine assembly by 70 percent from 1,735 MW in the first half of the previous year to 2,948 MW. At 623, the number of rotor blades produced in the Company's own plants is below the previous year's figure (H1 2019: 659 units). The Nordex Group also sourced 1,215 rotor blades from external suppliers. In the first half of 2020, the Company installed 662 wind turbines in 21 countries with a total output of 2,287.1 MW (H1 2019: 778.1 MW).

Source: IWR Online, 18 Aug 2020