Key financial figures for 2011
- Revenue: mEUR 5,836
- EBIT: mEUR (38) before special items
- EBIT margin: (0.7) per cent of revenue before special items
- Profit after tax: mEUR (166)
- Net working capital: mEUR (71)
Outlook for 2012
Vestas retains its full-year guidance of an EBIT margin 0-4 per cent and revenue of EUR 6,500-8,000m, including service revenue, which is expected to rise to approx EUR 850m with an EBIT margin of around 14 per cent before allocation of Group costs.
Due to the additional provisions of EUR 40m made for the V90-3.0 MW gearbox, warranty provisions for the year are now expected to be around 3 per cent of the expected full-year revenue, against the previous guidance of less than 3 per cent of revenue.
The ranges on revenue and EBIT expectations take into account the heavy fluctuations characterising these items depending on timing of order intake, production, shipments and final deliveries to the customers.
The full-year EBIT margin is adversely affected by too high production costs for the V112-3.0 MW turbine and the GridStreamer™ technology, which are expected to be reduced in the course of the year, and by an expected increase in depreciation and amortisation charges of approx EUR 100m.
Shipments, which are expected to increase to approx 7 GW with the present production plans, will peak in the middle of the year, while deliveries are expected to increase over the year, but may fluctuate heavily over the quarters. It should be emphasised that Vestas’ accounting policies allow the company to recognise supply-only and supply-and-installation projects as income only when the risk has finally passed to the customer, irrespective of whether Vestas has already produced, shipped and installed the turbines. Disruptions in production and challenges in relation to wind turbine installation, for example bad weather, lack of grid connections and similar matters may thus cause delays that could affect Vestas’ financial results for 2012.
Total investments are still expected to be EUR 550m, of which investments in intangible assets are expected to amount to EUR 350m, reflecting higher investments in the development of the V164-7.0 MW offshore turbine. Total research and development expenditure is still expected to amount to EUR 450m in 2012.
Special items in 2012, relative to layoff of 2,335 employees during 2012, as announced on 12 January 2012, are now expected to amount to between EUR 50-100m with full cash effect against the previous guidance of approx EUR 50m. Vestas expects to reduce fixed costs by more than EUR 150m with full effect as from the end of 2012.
The free cash flow is still expected to be positive in 2012.
Vestas aims to reduce the incidence of industrial injuries to no more than 3.0 industrial injuries per one million working hours.
