In the first nine months of the current year, the Nordex Group achieved a 20.5 per cent increase in sales to € 1,266.6 million (9M 2013: € 1,050.7 million). This performance was particularly driven by a substantial rise in business in the Americas, which more than doubled in volume. At the same time, sales in the main EMEA region (Europe plus South Africa) continued to rise by nearly nine per cent to over € 1.0 billion.
Globally, new installed capacity expanded by 15.6 per cent to 1,068 MW (9M/2013: 924 MW). Furthermore, Nordex boosted turbine assembly output by over seven per cent to 1,076 MW (9M/2013: 1,002 MW), thus more than making up for the effects arising from the start of volume production of generation delta. Consolidated operating earnings almost doubled to € 59.9 million in the first nine months of 2014 (previous year: € 31.0 million) and with a margin of 4.7% (previous year: 3.0%) were fully in line with the target range previously published. In the third quarter Nordex achieved an EBIT margin of 5.1%. This was chiefly due to economies of scale. Structural costs before depreciation and amortisation expense rose by 1.6% and thus more slowly than sales. Together with lower net finance expense, consolidated profit grew to € 28.0 million (previous year: € 5.3 million). On the basis of the strong performance in the current year, the Management Board confirms that the outlook for the financial year 2014 is positive overall. Accordingly, sales are expected in a range of € 1.65 - 1.75 billion (previously € 1.5 - 1.6 billion). Nordex expects the EBIT margin to reach 4.5 - 5.0%, that is to say the top half of the previous target range.
