Vestas keeps 2010 guidance as Q3 profit, revenue beat consensus

(ADPnews) - Oct 26, 2010 - Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) posted today lower, yet better-than-expected, profit and revenue for the third quarter of 2010 and maintained its 2010 outlook, which was a positive surprise for the market.

Vestas saw its pretax profit drop to EUR 175 million (USD 244.6m) in July-September 2010 from a year-earlier EUR 229 million, while analysts polled by SME Direkt had on average expected EUR 89.6 million.

Revenue also shrank, by 5% year-on-year to EUR 1.722 billion, yet outperforming the EUR-1.595-billion market consensus.

Operating profit amounted to EUR 185 million, down by 24% from July-September 2009. The operating margin decreased to 10.7% from 13.5%, but remained well above the expected 6.2%.

In the third quarter of 2010, Vestas's net profit dropped 24% on the year to EUR 126 million. In the first nine months of the year, the net result was a loss of EUR 75 million versus a year-earlier profit of EUR 264 million.

Although analysts had in general expected Vestas to downgrade its 2010 guidance, the group confirmed its forecast for revenues of some EUR 6 billion and an operating margin of 5-6% before exceptional items.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.398)

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