In line with its business plan for 2015-2017, Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa says strong commercial activity boosted its order intake – with sales from 25 different countries – to 3.99 GW in the last 12 months.
Between January and September, the company doubled net profit to EUR 126 million, driven by improvements in revenues (+30.4%) and underlying earnings before interest and taxes (+67.2%).
Gamesa's revenues increased by 30.4% to EUR 2.533 billion in the first nine months of the year. This increase was driven by strong growth in wind turbine revenues (+35%): Activity surged 26% to 2.301 GW following eight straight quarters of double-digit growth. Additionally, operations and maintenance services revenues increased by 7% to EUR 345 million in the period.
Gamesa says it is continuing to strengthen its foothold in developed markets: During the first nine months of the year, India accounted for 28% of MW sold, followed by Latin America at 25% and Europe and the rest of the world at 21%. China and the U.S. contributed 15% and 11%, respectively.
Order intake in the first nine months of 2015 amounted to 2.841 GW – bringing the order book at the end of September to 3.034 GW (+42%) and thus assuring 100% of the sales volume target for 2015 (3.1 GW).
According to Gamesa, this positive commercial performance (order intake of close to 4.0 GW in the last 12 months) lends visibility to medium-term sales projections and is in line with the volumes projected for 2017: 3.5-3.8 GW.
In a situation of rising demand, Gamesa says, the company continues to enhance profitability and strengthen its balance sheet.
In the first nine months, underlying EBIT amounted to EUR 206 million (+67.2%), equivalent to an underlying EBIT margin of 8.1% (+1.8 percentage points). The gain in profitability was driven by sales growth, coupled with strict control of structural costs, optimization of variable costs and an improvement in exchange rates with respect to 2014. Net profit amounted to EUR 126 million – double the EUR 64 million reported in the same period of 2014.
Gamesa says it also prioritizes control of its balance sheet, with a net debt position at end-September of EUR 70 million – a reduction of EUR 238 million in the last 12 months. A dividend amounting to EUR 23 million was paid in the third quarter of the year after resumption of the dividend out of 2014 earnings.
In line with the business plan for 2015-2017, this year, Gamesa launched new platforms to improve access to markets such as northern Europe and enter new markets such as Canada, Australia and South Africa – and thereby cater to 100% of the world onshore market, the company says.
Gamesa also launched a new turbine for low winds, G126-2.5 MW, and is set to unveil the first wind turbine in its 3.3 MW platform at EWEA 2015.
Gamesa notes that underlying EBIT and net profit do not include the impact of the joint venture with Adwen (EUR 29 million in EBIT and EUR 4 million in net profit in the first nine months).
