Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the biggest wind-turbine maker, may have to cut its forecasts a third time this year as banks curb loans for wind farms and its competitors gain market share, the top-ranked money manager said.Aug.18:
The forecasts may be too high in a year global turbine production capacity exceeds demand, said SAM Group Holding AG’s Thiemo Lang, the best-performing manager in Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s 2009 ranking of 41 funds that invest in clean-energy stocks. Vestas spokeswoman Jasmine Cargill today said the company stands by the forecasts it made on Aug. 18.
Wind-energy stocks around the world have suffered as the aftershocks of the global credit crisis limited investment in carbon-free power generation. Vestas shares plunged 23 percent on Aug. 18 after the company lowered its forecast for 2010 sales and posted a bigger second-quarter loss than analysts expected.
“I’m not sure if that’s it for the reductions in earnings estimates or if there’s more to come,” said Lang, who doesn’t own the stock and doesn’t plan to buy in the near term. “I’d prefer to wait until I see more stability in their estimates,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Most analysts predict the company will meet its forecast of 6 billion euros in sales this year. Revenue was 1.8 billion euros in the first half of the year.
Vestas shares fell as much as 1 percent and traded at 220.20 kroner, down 0.6 percent, as of 1:37 p.m. today in Copenhagen trading as the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index rose 0.1 percent. Vestas has lost about 31 percent this year. Rival turbine makers Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA of Spain and India’s Suzlon Energy Ltd. have dropped about 53 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
Delayed Orders
Randers, Denmark-based Vestas last cut its 2010 sales forecast to 6 billion euros from 7 billion euros, citing delays in expected orders in the U.S., Spain and Germany. Most analysts predict the company will meet its sales forecast.
“We were maybe too optimistic on what we expected we could execute in the second half of 2010,” Vestas Chief Executive Officer Ditlev Engel said in an Aug. 18 television interview. “The financial crisis had a delay effect on our industry and we’re seeing it in 2010 rather than in 2009.”
Overcapacity in the turbine industry is squeezing manufacturers’ margins, Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Justin Wu said June 21....MORE
Clobbered in Copenhagen: "Vestas Wind shares slump up to 26% after group slashes outlook" (VWS.CO)
