• Sales totaling EUR 933 million
• Adjusted EBITDA margin before footprint reconfiguration costs at minus 5.6 percent 
• Solid order intake of 1.2 GW
• Order book for projects and services at EUR 9.3 billion
• Updated guidance for 2022 and mid-term strategic target of 8 percent EBITDA margin confirmed

The Nordex Group today presented its figures for the first quarter of 2022. This announcement has been delayed, as announced on 5 May 2022, because the Nordex Group was exposed to a cyber security incident at the end of March. The Company generated sales of EUR 933 million (Q1/2021: EUR 1,251 million). The trend in sales is attributable to a planned change in production to different blades and weather-related lower installation output.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in the first quarter, including costs of EUR 36.9 million for reconfiguration of production, were minus EUR 88.9 million (Q1/2021: EUR 10.4 million). Adjusted for these one-off costs, EBITDA was EUR minus 52.0 million and the adjusted EBITDA margin was minus 5.6 percent (Q1/2021: 0.8 percent). Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, profitability was impacted by higher raw material and logistics costs.

Operating performance 

The Nordex Group installed 197 wind turbines in 12 countries with an aggregate output of 867 MW in the first quarter of 2022. In the prior-year quarter, 381 wind turbines with an aggregate output of 1,453 MW were installed in 19 countries. In terms of installed capacity (in MW), 82 percent was attributable to Europe, 10 percent to North America and 8 percent to Latin America. As a result of lower installation figures, sales in the Projects segment declined by 28.4 percent to EUR 819.8 million in the reporting period (Q1/2021: EUR 1,145.7 million). In contrast, the Service segment continued its positive trend with an increase in sales of 7.1 percent to EUR 115.7 million (Q1/2021: EUR 108.0 million).

At 304 turbines, production output in turbine assembly was exactly on the level achieved in the first quarter of the previous year, with the nominal output of 1,300 MW increasing by 15.0 percent to 1,495 MW. The Company produced 270 rotor blades (Q1/2021: 383 units). External suppliers manufactured an additional 702 rotor blades according to Nordex’s designs and specifications (Q1/2021: 570 rotor blades).

The Nordex Group registered positive demand comparable to the prior-year quarter in the first three months of 2022. Order intake (excluding the Service segment) came to EUR 903 million (Q1/2021: EUR 911 million), with total nominal output of 1,165 MW (Q1/2021: 1,247 MW). Of this order volume (in MW), 89 percent was attributable to ten countries in Europe and 11 percent to the Latin America reporting region. The largest individual markets were Finland, Germany, Croatia and Peru. At the end of the quarter, the Projects segment reported an order book of EUR 6.3 billion. This represents a year-on-year increase of around 24 percent (Q1/2021: EUR 5.1 billion). The order book in the Service segment increased by 7.2 percent, from EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 3.0 billion. The total order book for both segments thus came to EUR 9.3 billion (Q1/2021: EUR 7.9 billion).

Key financial figures at a glance

Compared with the end of the previous year, total assets grew slightly by 1.9 percent to EUR 4,187 million as of 31 March 2022 (31 December 2021: EUR 4,108 million). The equity ratio was 20.5 percent (31 December 2021: 25.9 percent). As of the end of March 2022, the Nordex Group had a total available liquidity of EUR 771.2 million consisting of cash and cash equivalents of EUR 681.2 million (31 December 2021: EUR 778.4 million) and a committed cash line of EUR 90 million. The Group’s net cash position amounted to EUR 314.6 million (31 December 2021: EUR 423.7 million), while the working capital ratio as a percentage of consolidated sales was minus 11.3 percent (31 March 2021: minus 7.6 percent).

Updated guidance for 2022 confirmed

As visibility increased, the Nordex Group updated its guidance for the 2022 financial year on 24 May 2022. This guidance is now being confirmed in the context of publishing the quarterly statement on the first three months of 2022. The Company now expects consolidated sales of EUR 5.2 to 5.7 billion and an operating margin (EBITDA margin) of minus four to zero percent. This guidance now factors in all the one-off and non-operating costs resulting from the external environment, that currently affects many industries. Some of these one-off expenses namely, direct impacts from the Ukraine war, costs of footprint reconfiguration and costs related to cyber incident should not recur in 2023, thus supporting the expected margin recovery. Some of these other indirect effects from the Ukraine war, supply chain disruptions and lockdowns in China are also included in the current guidance. The expectations regarding capital expenditure of around EUR 180 million and a working capital ratio of less than minus 7 percent at the end of 2022 remain unchanged.

In addition to this guidance for the current financial year 2022, the Nordex Group confirms its strategic goal of achieving a Group EBITDA margin of 8 percent in the medium term, having already achieved its sales target of around EUR 5 billion and production capacity of more than 6 GW.

"The start into 2022 has been difficult and has certainly unfolded differently than anyone expected. There are significant disruptions to the supply chain and the cost situation remains volatile. However, our underlying operations continue to manage these risks well with good momentum in our order intake. Improving prices should help our margin recovery towards our midterm strategic target of 8 percent EBITDA margin. It also underlines the competitiveness of our product portfolio, which now includes the N163/6.X from the 6 MW class." says José Luis Blanco, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nordex Group.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Nordex