Nordex Balance Sheet 2020: Sales Up Substantially - Earnings Down

Hamburg, Germany - Nordex has significantly increased its sales in 2020 according to preliminary figures published Tuesday last last week (04-03-2021). While sales have increased significantly compared to the previous year, EBITDA is weaker than in 2019. Overall, Nordex sees the new forecast presented in November 2020 confirmed.

The wind turbine manufacturer increased consolidated sales by 41.6 percent to EUR 4.6 billion (previous year: EUR 3.3 billion) in Corona 2020, slightly above the expected target figure of around EUR 4.4 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at EUR 94.0 million, down 24.1 percent year-on-year (previous year: EUR 123.8 million). This results in an EBITDA margin of 2.0 percent (previous year: 3.8 percent), which meets the guidance figure of 2.0 percent.

In 2020, Nordex achieved a working capital ratio of minus 6.3 percent in relation to consolidated sales (previous year 2019: minus 9.1 percent). According to Nordex, this positive performance is largely due to the strong order intake and the Group’s efficient working capital management.

In 2020, the Nordex Group invested EUR 162.9 million, which was just below the forecast target of EUR 170 million and also slightly down on the previous year's figure of EUR 172.5 million. According to Nordex, capital expenditure mainly focused on the establishment and expansion of rotor blade production in Mexico, India and Brazil and the procurement of production, installation and transportation equipment.

Nordex again generated order receipts of over 6,000 megawatts (MW) (6 GW) in fiscal 2020, thus almost matching the previous year's order volume of 6,200 MW (6.2 GW) despite the Corona pandemic. In terms of value, Europe accounted for around 62 percent of the orders, with North America and Latin America each accounting for 19 percent. According to Nordex, this documents the company's global positioning and shows a shift in order intake towards established markets.

“In 2020, we took swift and pragmatic action to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite these difficult conditions, we installed turbines with an output of around 5.5 GW worldwide. Our order intake benefited from the sustained momentum in the wind power market, with our higher-margin Delta4000 turbine technology performing particularly well," said Nordex CEO José Luis Blanco about the figures.

Nordex will present its final audited figures for the 2020 financial year, including its guidance for 2021, on 23 March 2021.

The Nordex share, which is listed in the worldwide stock index for the renewable energy industry RENIXX World, is acutally traded at EUR 20.70 (10-03-2021, 3.09 p.m., Stuttgart Stock Exchange). This means that the stock is around 24 percent below its high for the year to date of EUR 27.16 on 8 January 2021. Compared with the price at the beginning of the year, Nordex stock is currently down by around 7 percent.

Source: IWR Online, 10 Mar 2021