SMA Solar to let go 425 workers amid global restructuring

German inverter maker SMA Solar Technology (ETR:S92) today said it will lay off about 425 employees across its global operations as it restructures its business in an effort to return to profitability.

The plan will affect full-time job positions and will be carried out until 2020. It concerns 425 of the company’s 3,307 full-time workers, with more than 100 of the cuts planned for Germany. Over 300 people will lose their jobs at SMA’s foreign locations.

The job reduction programme is part of a wider restructuring under which the German group aims to recover from a steep drop in prices and return to the black, positioning itself as a systems and solutions provider. In line with the plan, SMA will sell its Chinese subsidiaries to the local management and cease its business there.

“The measures are aimed at reducing SMA’s fixed costs and making optimal use of our capacity at the headquarters by focusing on our core competencies, outsourcing and automating activities, and reorganizing structures,” said CEO Jurgen Reinert.

Looking ahead, SMA will continue investing in energy management, storage integration, repowering and digital business models. Its restructuring programme, which is pending clearance by the works council, will start from January 2019.

SMA reiterated its previous guidance for negative earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the mid to high tens of millions Euro range for 2018 and revenues of between EUR 760 million (USD 861m) and EUR 780 million. Its goal for next year will be to book positive EBITDA and expand revenues, it said.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.133)

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