German SMA Solar's net profit decreases to EUR 81m in Q1-Q3 2012

(SeeNews) – Nov 8, 2012 - German solar company SMA Solar (ETR:S92) said today its nine-month consolidated net profit decreased to EUR 81 million (USD 103.1m) in 2012 from EUR 126.4 million in the same period in 2011, mainly due to subsidy cuts in Europe.

SMA Solar’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell to EUR 116 million from EUR 178.3 million. The EBIT margin of 9.7% came at the upper end of the company’s forecast but was lower than the 15% last year.

Due to foreign growth, total sales remained constant at EUR 1.2 billion.

SMA’s output in the solar inverters market increased by 9.5% year-on-year to 5.9 GW.

Germany’s largest solar company affirmed its recent 2012 forecasts and said that against sales of EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 1.5 billion, it forecasts EBIT of EUR 100 million to EUR 150 million, corresponding to an EBIT margin of between 8% to 10%.

As for 2013 the company however expects a demand fall and increasing price pressure due to the massive photovoltaics subsidy cuts in Europe. As a result, SMA projects its 2013 sales to decrease to between EUR 900 million and EUR 1.3 billion and is preparing for a break-even result at best.

(EUR 1.00 = USD 1.27)

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