Solar project developer and operator ReneSola Ltd (NYSE:SOL) on Tuesday reported higher first-quarter revenues, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA, exceeding its projections, and confirmed that “significant profit growth” is expected in 2021.
At USD 22.8 million (EUR 18.6m), ReneSola’s top line result in the three months improved both sequentially and in annual terms thanks to the higher contribution of its project development business and the sale of solar projects in Hungary and the US, in particular. The company noted, however, that due to the unpredictable timing of project sales, its achievements in this area are typically measured by longer periods -- at least a year.
The project development business accounted for 84.3% of the total revenue in the first quarter, bringing USD 19.2 million.
After gross profit zoomed to USD 6.8 million, gross margin jumped to 29.9% from 12.1% in the preceding quarter and 6.4% a year back, not affected by material cost increases in the solar supply chain.
ReneSola closed the January-March quarter with a net attributable profit of USD 800,000, against a loss of USD 4.4 million a year before.
More details about ReneSola’s performance in the reporting period can be seen in the table.
| Results in USD million, unless otherwise noted |
Q1 2021 |
Q1 2020 |
| Revenue |
22.8 |
21.2 |
| GAAP gross profit |
6.8 |
1.4 |
| GAAP operating profit (loss) |
4.1 |
(1.1) |
| Non-GAAP operating profit (loss) |
4.6 |
(0.7) |
| Adjusted EBITDA |
6.1 |
0.9 |
| GAAP net profit (loss) attr. to ReneSola |
0.8 |
(4.4) |
| Non-GAAP net profit (loss) attr. to ReneSola |
3 |
(2) |
The first three months of 2021 marked the sale of a 12.3-MW portfolio in Hungary to Denmark-based Obton, while a 10-MW bundle of solar projects was offloaded to Greenbacker Renewable Energy. Thus, ReneSola had a late-stage solar power project pipeline of 1.31 GW at the end of March, while 172 MW of capacity was in operation and about 6 MW under construction.
For 2021, the company reiterated its forecast for revenues of USD 90 million - 100 million and a gross margin higher than 25%. “We expect a profitable 2021 with significant profit growth compared to 2020,” it said.
Revenues in the second quarter are seen at between USD 19 million and USD 22 million, with the gross margin standing at 36%-39%.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.816)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!
Author: Ken Teegardin. Licence: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
