The Danish firm, which has just published its financial statements for 2009, has exceeded its turnover in 2008, but has not achieved the targets it set for the year ended. The €6.6 billion in turnover achieved by Vestas in 2009 is someway short of the €7.2 billion target fixed at the start of the year. The stock market has reacted badly to the news, despite the year-on-year increase from 2008. On the same day the results were announced (10 February), Vestas’ share price fell by approximately 7%.
Furthermore, Vestas’ CEO, Ditlev Engel, has revised slightly downwards the target for 2010; forecasting turnover of approximately €7.0 billion, compared to a forecast last December of between €7.0 and 8.0 billion. Engel has also reduced the EBIT forecast by between 10 and 11%. The adjustment has been performed because “the year's expected order intake of firm and unconditional orders of 8,000-9,000 MW is anticipated to materialise so late in the year that it is considered unlikely that revenue will reach €8 billion”.
Engel has stressed that the strong US market is already starting to place the first orders for Vestas for more than a year. Engel told Dow Jones in a recent interview that the contract for 33 3-MW turbines for a New Hampshire wind farm would be “the first of many” in the coming months, as more wind projects secure financing as the market picks up.
Europe will account for almost half of the expected 2010 order intake of 8,000-9,000 MW, whereas Americas and Asia/Pacific will account for 30% and 20%, respectively.
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