The swift and encouraging turnaround in the fortunes of Germanys inverter supplier SMA was confirmed today as the company delivered a glowing set of 2015 financial results that served to underline just how well the firm rode out the difficult market conditions of 2014.
Reporting a 24% year-on-year sales increase, SMA secured growth across the board, upping its international sales share and securing a 43.7% growth in the number of inverters sold.
Sales for 2015 reached 999.6 million ($1.13 billion), up from 805.4 million in 2014. Over the course of the year the company shipped 7.3 GW of inverters globally, besting 2014s 5.1 GW figure as SMA grew in the markets of North America, the U.K., Japan and Australia.
In terms of international share of sales, SMA was able to claim 87.3% of the market, increasing its grip on global markets (up from 78.3% in 2014) at a time when the threat from foreign players particularly those from China has never been greater.
Perhaps most encouragingly for shareholders, SMA said that it will be recommending for the first time since 2012 a dividend payment of 0.14 per share at a payout ratio of 34% – to shareholders. Collectively, this will amount to 4.9 million in dividends paid out after the AGM on May 31, 2016.
The companys increased sales meant that EBITDA improved considerably in 2015, hitting 113.3 million ($128 million) having risen from negative $58.4 million in 2014.
Despite a round of severance payments enacted during the last fiscal year as the company cut 1,400 full time positions, SMA was still able to improve its cash flow to 61.8 million over the reporting period a turnaround of close to 100 million ($113 million) in the space of 12 months. SMA ended the year with net cash of 285.6 million and an equity ratio of 49.1%.
Tough measures deliver positive outlook
SMAs strong balance sheet is, said the company CEO Pierre-Pascal Urbon, the result of tough but decisive measures taken in 2014. "These measures are already bearing fruit," he remarked, adding that the company returned to profitability earlier than originally expected.
"We can now generate profits with considerably lower sales. As such, we have not only delivered more than we promised, but we did so while the group was undergoing its biggest restructuring ever. Even in difficult times, we did not lose sight of the future and systematically geared SMA towards the digitization of the energy industry."
The CEO added that recent partnerships with Tesla, Daimler and transmission grid operator TenneT will "point the way" to the future.
Looking ahead, SMA anticipates Q1 sales for 2016 to be between 235 million and 240 million, up slightly from Q1 2015, with EBIT to reach between 23 million to 27 million. In Q1 2015, EBIT limped home at -5.4 million. Over the course of 2016, the managing board is eyeing sales of between 950 million to 1.05 billion, which would represent a 12-month period of stability.
Analysis by Smart Solar Consulting CEO Götz Fischbeck for pv magazine forecast a sustained challenge to SMAs top spot globally from Israeli power optimizer specialist SolarEdge, which enjoyed a very profitable year of growth in 2015, while other analysts expect Chinas Huawei and Sungrow to seek to increase their global market share in 2016.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.