Solar project developer and operator ReneSola Ltd (NYSE:SOL) more than doubled its attributable net profit in the second quarter of 2021 regardless of a drop in revenues and raised its full-year gross margin forecast.
The company on Monday reported a second-quarter net profit of USD 7 million (EUR 5.9m) and gross margin of 61%, both exceeding analyst projections, and announced this was its most profitable quarter since its shift to a pure-play project developer back in 2017. Its expectations for 2021 are for a profitable year with “robust profit growth” as compared to 2020, and a gross margin exceeding 30% against the earlier guidance of over 25%. Revenues are still seen to be within the previously given range of USD 90 million-100 million.
The growth of ReneSola’s bottom line in the second quarter was mainly fuelled by strong demand for projects in the US and Europe, while revenues were hurt by the timing of a project sale in Spain. The company noted that April-June was its fifth profitable quarter in a row.
After gross profit rose to USD 11.3 million, gross margin jumped both sequentially and year-on-year, not affected by material cost increases in the solar supply chain.
Further details about ReneSola’s second-quarter performance are available in the table.
| Results in USD million, unless otherwise noted |
Q2 2021 |
Q1 2021 |
Q1 2020 |
| Revenue |
18.5 |
22.8 |
26.2 |
| GAAP gross profit |
11.3 |
6.8 |
7.4 |
| Gross margin |
61% |
29.9% |
28.4% |
| GAAP operating profit |
7.3 |
4.1 |
4.6 |
| Non-GAAP operating profit |
8.8 |
4.6 |
6 |
| Adjusted EBITDA |
10 |
6.1 |
7.6 |
| Net profit (loss) attr. to ReneSola |
7 |
0.8 |
3.1 |
| Non-GAAP Net profit (loss) attr. to ReneSola |
7.5 |
3 |
3.6 |
During the second quarter, ReneSola offloaded a 380-MW solar project portfolio in Poland to Denmark-based Obton and also completed the sale of 5 MW of projects in Maine. As a result, at the end of June, it had a mid-to-late-stage solar power project pipeline of 1.6 GW, whereas 170 MW of capacity was in operation and about 15 MW under construction in Poland and China.
ReneSola guided for revenues of between USD 19 million and USD 21 million in the third quarter and a gross margin of 36%-40%. It noted that the result will contain revenue from the belated sale of the 12-MW Spanish project, which is expected to be finalised within the next month.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.846)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!
Ken Teegardin/CC BY-SA 2.0
