With the lingering legal dispute with Hemlock Semiconductor looming in the background of SolarWorld’s affairs, it must come as a welcome respite to be able to post very positive financial results for the second quarter of the year. The results showed impressive increases across the board mainly due to grow in various international markets, with an important return to positive figures for the company’s operating result; albeit a reduced result than what had been released in the preliminary figures last month.
The driver of the German company’s impressive results was the 39% increase in sales year over year, up to 342 MW in Q2 2016 from 246 MW in the same period last year. This, unsurprisingly, had a positive consequence on the company’s overall revenue for the quarter, which grew 30% to $248 million compared to $191 million in Q2 2015.
SolarWorld announced that much of this growth came in the company’s largest single market, the United States, which accounted for more than half of the sales in the quarter. However, this was not the sole market in which SolarWorld experienced growth, claiming improved sales figures in Europe, Asia and Africa.
“Our broad basis in international solar markets and our balanced product portfolio have paid off,” SolarWorld AG CEO Frank Asbeck. “In the second quarter, driver for growth were our leading technology in high efficiency modules. Our quality products with standard power were also high in demand.”
It was important that these gains translated into positive earnings figures, which they did, as the company recorded an EBITDA of €16.4 million during the quarter, up from €7 million in Q2 2015, and an EBIT (operating result) of €4.5 million, up from -€4.2 million in Q2 2015. However, the company did educe these figures down from €18.5 million and €6.6 million respectively, after the “figures changed during the finalization process of the consolidated interim financial statements,” said the report. This left the company’s H1 EBITDA at €18.5 million and its H1 EBIT at €5.2 million.
Looking forward, SolarWorld expects a rising international demand in solar products to continue to benefit the company. It stated that it expects to see a sales and revenue increase of over 20% for the full year, with the goal of reaching €1 billion in revenue for 2016.
These results come off the back of a disappointing ruling for the company in its legal dispute with Hemlock Semiconductor. However, in an exclusive interview with pv magazine, Asbeck was confident the company would not face any crippling legal consequences as a result of the lawsuit, and would appeal any negative verdicts that the company may face.
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