SMA Solar books lower 9-mo profit but sees positive trend

Source: SMA Solar Technology

Photovoltaic (PV) and battery inverters maker SMA Solar Technology AG (ETR:S92) on Thursday reported significantly improved sales and earnings levels in the third quarter of 2022 compared with the first half of the year and expressed hopes that this positive trend will continue in the final quarter.

Regardless of that, the company posted lower sales, earnings and net profit for the first nine months of 2022 compared with the same period of 2021. Details can be found in the table below.

“The second half of the year got off to a good start, and we improved the sales and earnings level significantly in the third quarter compared with the first half of the year,” said CEO Juergen Reinert. “Given that the order backlog is still very high and the delivery situation for electronic components is continuing to improve, we are confident that this trend will be carried forward into the fourth quarter,” he added.

Figures in EUR million, except percentages	9-mo 2022	9-mo 2021
Sales	724.1	744.9
EBITDA (loss)	50.2	52.9
EBITDA margin	6.9%	7.1%
Net profit (loss)	11	15.3

In January-September 2022, the company sold 8.7 GW of inverters, down from 10.3 GW a year earlier.

SMA explained the decline in its nine-month sales with project delays in the Large Scale & Project Solutions segment. Reinert, however, stated that the company anticipates seeing an improvement in incoming orders for this division. In fact, he noted that this trend had already began in the third quarter.

The managing board of SMA also reiterated its recently-upgraded 2022 guidance for sales of between EUR 975 million (USD 970.5m) and EUR 1.05 billion, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of EUR 60 million-75 million.

(EUR 1 = USD 0.995)

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