21 August 2008
Nordex reporting a double-digit increase in sales and earnings
- 46 percent increase in total revenues to EUR 484 million
- 20 percent improvement in EBT to EUR 17.7 million
- Increase to EUR 12.2 million in cash flow from operating activities
- Margin expected to widen to 5.5 - 6.0 percent on sales of EUR 1.1 billion
in 2008
Hamburg - In the first half of 2008, the Nordex Group (ISIN: DE000A0D6554) achieved a 44 percent increase in sales to EUR 466 million (previous year: EUR 323 million). Total revenues rose by 46 percent to EUR 484 million (previous year: EUR 332 million), with production output rising by the same rate. In the period under review, turbine assembly output climbed by 48% to 490 MW (previous year: 332 MW). With an export ratio of 95%, this favorable business performance was materially underpinned by strong non-domestic demand.
Earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 20 percent in the period under review to EUR 17.7 million (previous year: EUR 14.7 million). As expected, profit thus did not rise as quickly as sales. This was due to the high volume of capital spending on extensions to production capacity and new non-domestic companies. Property, plant and equipment increased by around EUR 24 million primarily as a result of the extensions to the Rostock facility. The headcount climbed by 48 percent to 1,857 (previous year: 1,255) primarily as a result of the establishment of new structures in growth markets such as Italy, the UK, China and the United States.
Net financial result improved to plus EUR 1.5 million (previous year: minus EUR 0.5 million) thanks to the high net liquidity of EUR 190 million. With the tax rate increasing to 24 percent (previous year: 7.7 percent), the net income for the period of EUR 13.4 million was on a par with the year-ago figure.
The working capital ratio came to 4.8 percent (previous year: 9.8 percent). The increase of EUR 446 million in working capital chiefly resulted in a net inflow of cash from operating activities of EUR 12.2 million (previous year: net outflow of EUR 39.2 million).
The value of order books as of June 30, 2008 rose by 94 percent to around EUR 3.3 billion (previous year: EUR 1.7 billion) and comprises firm orders of EUR 1.3 billion and master contracts of EUR 2.0 billion. For 2008 as a whole, Nordex continues to forecast sales of EUR 1.1 billion and profit of EUR 60 - 66 million, equivalent to a target margin of 5.5 to 6.0 percent. Says Thomas Richterich, CEO of Nordex AG: "We have laid the foundations for increasing our sales and earnings by 50% in 2008. This makes us one of the fastest growing companies in our industry and allows us to secure strategically important potential which we will be able to tap in the future."
Hamburg, August 21, 2008
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