Wind turbines Nordex reporting consolidated net profit and a slight increase in sales

Consolidated sales climbed to EUR 1,183 million (previous year: EUR 1,136 million). As expected, however, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) declined to EUR 40 million (previous year: EUR 63 million) due to higher structural costs.

Accordingly, the personnel expense ratio widened from 6.9 percent to 9.2 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2009, Nordex achieved a EBIT margin of 5.3 percent for capacity utilization reasons on sales of EUR 369 million. Consolidated net profit for fiscal year 2009 came to EUR 24.2 million (previous year: EUR 49.5 million).

As a result, the equity ratio rose from 38 percent to around 41 percent as of the balance sheet date. At the same time, liquidity climbed by 43 percent to around EUR 160 million. Nordex was able to achieve a net cash inflow of EUR 9.6 million from operating activities primarily as a result of destocking (previous year: net cash outflow of EUR 59.5 million from operating activities).

The Management Board will be announcing the final figures for 2009 and providing an updated outlook for the current year at its annual press conference and the analyst conference in Frankfurt on April 19, 2010.

Over 4,000 Nordex wind turbines in operation around the world. At the beginning of 2010, the number of Nordex wind turbines installed around the world since 1985 passed the 4,000 mark. Of the globally wind  energy installed nominal output of 5.67 GW, some 52% is accounted for by the multi-megawatt class, which was launched in 2000.

Thus, over the past 18 months, Nordex has assembled a total of 749 wind turbines with an aggregate output of 1,679.45 MW around the world. During this period, Nordex placed some 93.3 MW of wind power on line each month on average. By comparison, the installed nominal output of the 3,328 wind turbines in operation in April 2008 stood at just under 4,000 MW.

At the same time, the average installed output per wind turbine assembled has risen from 2.15 MW in April 2008 to a current figure of 2.24 MW, up from 1.82 MW in 2006. This reflects the strong demand for multi-megawatt wind turbines in the wind farms, particularly the N80, the N90 and N100, over the past few years. To date, Nordex has assembled 1,216 of these wind turbines around the world.

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