PNE Wind posts record results for 2016 but warns of tough times ahead

German wind farm developer PNE Wind AG (ETR:PNE3) today posted a net income of EUR 69 million (USD 74.4m) for 2016, surging from the humble EUR 3.5 million reported back in 2015.

The basic earnings per share jumped to EUR 0.90 from just EUR 0.05 in the prior year.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) went up to EUR 97 million from just EUR 9.8 million thanks to income booked from the sale of wind farms, offshore milestone payments received and income from electricity generation.

Sales more than doubled to EUR 248.6 million from EUR 109.5 million.

Despite "the best operating results in its corporate history", Markus Lesser, CEO, warned that "the market will become more difficult due to regulatory changes, and we are expecting declining prices."

"But now, we have the necessary resources to invest again in a project portfolio in the long term in order to strengthen our internal operations and to profitably use or expand our entire value chain..."We intend to build up additional electricity generation capacity, in particular through the development of a European portfolio of onshore wind farms up to 2019/2020," he noted.

The financial situation and the balance sheet structure of PNE Wind improved significantly as a result of the sale of 142.5 MW wind farm portfolio to a subsidiary of Allianz Global Investors. Cash and cash equivalents increased to EUR 147.7 million, nearly double the EUR 86.1 million recorded a year earlier.

However, the Board of Management sees fiscal 2017 as a year of transition, in which the group EBIT will range between EUR 0 and 15 million due to the changed market environment and the investments in the further expansion of the portfolio.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.078)

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