Aarhus, Denmark, 2014-05-09 08:29 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
In the first quarter of 2014, Vestas generated revenue of EUR 1,283m – an increase of 17 per cent to the year-earlier period. EBIT before special items increased by EUR 148m to EUR 40m due to improved project margins, higher revenue, lower fixed capacity costs and lower depreciation. The EBIT margin before special items was 3.1 per cent and the free cash flow increased by EUR 36m to EUR (24)m compared to the first quarter of 2013. During the last 12 months, Vestas has generated a free cash flow of EUR 1,045m.
The intake of firm and unconditional wind turbine orders was 1,188 MW in the first quarter of 2014. The value of the wind turbine backlog amounted to EUR 6.9bn at 31 March 2014. In addition to the wind turbine order backlog, Vestas had service agreements with contractual future revenue of EUR 6.9bn at the end of March 2014. Thus, the value of the combined backlog of wind turbine orders and service agreements stood at EUR 13.8bn – an improvement of EUR 1.4bn compared to the year-earlier period.
On 1 April 2014, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, the joint venture between Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., became operational.
Group President & CEO Anders Runevad said: ”As we expected, first quarter showed improvements in all major areas. This is a result of a lot of hard work from my colleagues and we remain focused on executing on our strategy, Profitable Growth for Vestas.”
Q1 at a glance (against Q1 2013)
| + 84% | Vestas had an order intake of 1,188 MW - an increase of 84 per cent |
| + 83% | Vestas produced and shipped 1,124 MW - an increase of 83 per cent |
| + 21% | Vestas delivered wind power systems with an aggregate capacity of 988 MW - an increase of 21 per cent |
| + 17% | Vestas generated revenue of EUR 1,283m - an increase of 17 per cent |
| + 4% | Service revenue amounted to EUR 225m - an increase of 4 per cent |
| EUR 148m | EBIT before special items amounted to EUR 40m - an increase of EUR 148m |
| + EUR 153m | Net profit amounted to EUR 2m - an increase of EUR 153m |
| EUR 36m | Vestas realised a free cash flow of EUR (24)m - an increase of EUR 36m |
| 3% | The number of employees at the end of the quarter was 16,610 - a decrease of 3 per cent |
| - 12%points | Renewable energy amounted to 46 per cent of total energy consumption - a decrease of 12 percentage points |
| + 11% | Incidence of lost time injuries per one million working hours was 2.0 - an increase of 11 per cent |
Press and analyst information meeting
For analysts, investors and the media, an information meeting will be held today, Friday, 9 May 2014 at 10 a.m. CEST (9 a.m. BST) at Vestas’ Headquarters, Hedeager 44, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.
The information meeting will be held in English and webcast live via vestas.com/investor.
The meeting may be attended electronically and questions may be asked through a conference call. The telephone numbers for the conference call are:
Europe: +44 208 817 9301 USA: +1 718 354 1226 Denmark: +45 7026 5040
A replay of the information meeting will subsequently be available from vestas.com/investor.
Contact details
Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark Lars Villadsen, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations Tel.: +45 9730 0000
