Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Aarhus, 8 May 2019
Company announcement No. 09/2019
Summary: Revenue on par with last year’s first quarter while earnings and free cash flow decreased. Solid order intake and combined order backlog at all-time high level. Guidance for 2019 maintained.
In the first quarter of 2019, Vestas generated revenue of EUR 1,730m – an increase of 2 percent compared to the year-earlier period. EBIT before special items decreased by EUR 83m to EUR 43m. The EBIT margin was 2.5 percent compared to 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2018 and free cash flow* amounted to EUR (876)m compared to EUR (587)m in the first quarter of 2018.
The intake of firm and unconditional wind turbine orders amounted to 3,004 MW in the first quarter of 2019.
The value of the wind turbine order backlog amounted to EUR 13.3bn as at 31 March 2019. In addition to the wind turbine order backlog, Vestas had service agreements with expected contractual future revenue of EUR 15.0bn at the end of March 2019. Thus, the value of the combined backlog of wind turbine orders and service agreements stood at EUR 28.3bn – an increase of EUR 6.7bn compared to the year-earlier period.
Vestas maintains its 2019 guidance on revenue of EUR 10.75bn-12.25bn, EBIT margin before special items of 8-10 percent, and total investments* of approx. EUR 700m.
Group President & CEO Anders Runevad said: “The strong global demand for wind energy continued in the first quarter of 2019 with Vestas growing its order intake with 84 percent to 3 GW and reaching an all-time high order backlog of EUR 28 bn. While underlying prices remain fairly stable and our Service business continues to grow in both revenue and profit, our results were as expected negatively impacted by orders received during the price decline in 2017. Furthermore, external factors such as tariffs and raw material prices increased cost as projected in the quarter. With activity levels planned to be significantly higher in the second half of 2019, we leverage our market-leading position to ramp up for executing an extraordinarily busy 2019, while introducing new solutions that accelerate the energy transition.”
Key highlights
Record Q1 order intake and all-time high order backlog
3 GW of order intake in Q1 leads to combined order backlog of more than EUR 28bn; up 31 percent YoY
Total revenue of EUR 1,730m
2 percent increase compared to Q1 2018
EBIT of EUR 43m
EBIT margin at 2.5 percent impacted by competitive markets, tariffs, and back-end loaded activity level
Strong service performance
Revenue growth of 16 percent, and EBIT margin of 26.4 percent
Positive contribution from MHI Vestas continues
Contribution to net profit of EUR 5m; an underlying improvement of EUR 14m YoY
*) Excl. the acquisition of SOWITEC Group GmbH, any investments in marketable securities, and short-term financial investments.
Information meeting (audiocast)
Today, Wednesday 8 May 2019 at 10 a.m. CEST (9 a.m. BST), Vestas will host an information meeting via an audiocast. The audiocast will be accessible via vestas.com/investor.
The meeting will be held in English and questions may be asked through a conference call.
The telephone numbers for the conference call are:
Europe: +44 333 300 9267
USA: +1 646 722 4956
Denmark: +45 7815 0109
Presentation material for the information meeting will be available at vestas.com/investor approximately one hour before the meeting.
Contact details
Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark
Patrik Setterberg, Vice President,
Investor Relations
Tel: +45 6122 1913
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