Demand remains high, SMA Solar assured when the figures were presented on Thursday. But because supply chains from Asia for electronic parts tore, the company cannot process all orders. CEO Jürgen Reinert does not see profitable growth again until the coming financial year. The stock market was still slightly uphill in the morning.
“The demand for sustainable solar and energy solutions remains high and our order intake is developing positively,” said Reinert according to the announcement. However, the strained supply chain is having a significant impact on sales and earnings. SMA has introduced measures to prevent the bottlenecks. In the second half of the year, the delivery situation should ease up in Reinert’s eyes. And: “From 2023 we expect a significant improvement in the overall situation and profitable sales growth.”
As a result of the delivery bottlenecks, the sales of the SDAX company fell slightly in the first half of the year. Revenue fell by three percent to almost 472 million euros. With a minus of eight percent, sales in the second largest segment “Home Solutions” fell even more. Here, SMA Solar supplies inverters and other technology for smaller photovoltaic systems for households. In the largest segment, “Large Scale & Project Solutions”, which supplies solar power plants, among other things, sales declined in line with Group sales.
The demand for SMA products, on the other hand, remains “unbroken” high, according to the company. As of June 30, the order backlog climbed to 1.29 billion euros – a record. The order backlog from the product business – i.e. without service – has more than doubled since the turn of the year.
Meanwhile, in the first half of the year, there was a problem turning these orders into money. Of the turnover, almost 16 million euros remained as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), 58 percent less than in the previous year. The bottom line was a deficit of 10.6 million euros. In the same period of the previous year, SMA Solar had posted a profit of EUR 13.3 million.
“The results are significantly influenced by the shortage of chips,” writes Jefferies analyst Constantin Hesse on the half-year report. In terms of sales, SMA even exceeded market expectations. However, profitability remains a problem.
The reaction of investors on the stock exchange was positive. The shares rose via XETRA in the meantime by 0.19 percent to 54.15 euros. This continued the upward trend of the past few weeks.
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