Nordex Group increases consolidated sales in 2023 to EUR 6.5 billion and achieves positive operating result

• Installations increased by 39 percent to 7.3 GW • 2023 EBITDA margin reaches break-even

• Full year free cash flow turns positive with year-end cash level of EUR

926 million • Financial structure strengthened

• Working capital ratio of minus 11.5 percent achieved

• Order backlog grows to a total of EUR 10.5 billion

• Guidance for 2024: sales of EUR 7.0 to 7.7 billion with an EBITDA margin of 2.0 to 4.0 percent

• Eighth Sustainability Report published

Hamburg (renewablepress) - The Nordex Group (ISIN: DE000A0D6554) published its 2023 annual financial statements today, confirming the preliminary results published on 12 February 2024. Group sales grew by 14 percent to EUR 6.5 billion (2022: EUR 5.7 billion). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) reached the operating break-even point at EUR 2.0 million (2022: EUR -244.3 million). This corresponds to a margin of zero percent (2022: -4.3 percent). Sales thus exceeded the upper end of the forecast corridor, while the EBITDA margin reached around the middle of the expected range. The working capital ratio in relation to consolidated sales amounted to minus 11.5% at the end of 2023 and was therefore once again significantly better than the forecast figure of less than minus 9% (2022: minus 10.2%). Investments were at EUR 131 million (2022: EUR 205 million) and were therefore well below the expected volume of EUR 200 million. This was due to project-related delays extending beyond the reporting date.

As of the 2023 reporting date, the Group's equity ratio of 18.0 percent (31 December 2022: 18.5 percent) was at the previous year's level. The Nordex Group's cash and cash equivalents increased to EUR 926 million at the end of 2023 (31 December 2022: EUR 634 million) and the net cash position improved to EUR 631 million (31 December 2022: EUR 244 million). Free cash flow in 2023 was positive at EUR 20 million (2022: EUR -503 million).

Financial structure strengthened

The company further strengthened its financial structure and liquidity in the reporting year with three measures, including by first repaying the high-yield bond from 2018 by exercising a second shareholder loan. With the approval of the Extraordinary General Meeting, both shareholder loans were then converted into equity in May. In addition, a convertible bond was issued in April to strengthen liquidity in view of the uncertain market environment.

Operating performance

In the year under review, the Nordex Group installed a total of 1,429 wind turbines in 24 countries (2022: 1,129 in 19 countries) with a total nominal output of just under 7.3 GW (2022: 5.2 GW). The Projects segment increased sales by 13.8% to EUR 5.8 billion (2022: EUR 5.1 billion). The Service segment increased sales by 18.3 percent to EUR 679 million (2022: EUR 574 million) and thus contributed 10.5 percent to Group sales. At the end of 2023, the Nordex Group had 11,400 wind turbines with a capacity of 35 GW under service, mostly under long-term contracts (2022: 10,599 WTGs, 31 GW). The order backlog in the Service segment increased by 11.4 percent to EUR 3.6 billion (2022: EUR 3.3 billion) and in the Projects segment by 5.8 percent to EUR 6.9 billion (2022: EUR 6.5 billion). In total, this results in an order backlog of just over EUR 10.5 billion, compared to EUR 9.8 billion in the previous year. The book-to-bill ratio of 1.07 was both above 1.0 as well as above the previous year's figure (2022: 1.04).

Production enhanced, product portfolio strengthened

In total, the company manufactured 1,520 turbines in the reporting year (2022: 1,502) and increased the nominal output of the turbines produced by 7.0% to almost 8.0 GW (2022: 7.5 GW) due to the higher average output of the wind turbines. The production of rotor blades in the company's own plants was reduced slightly in 2023 to a total of 1,159 rotor blades (2022: 1,243 blades). The company purchased 3,476 blades (2022: 3,531 blades) from external suppliers who manufacture the blades according to Nordex design and Nordex specifications.

Guidance for 2024 and medium-term margin target

For 2024, the Nordex Group expects consolidated sales of EUR 7.0 to 7.7 billion and an EBITDA margin of 2.0 to 4.0 percent. The company expects the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half. Key prerequisites for this forecast are a stable political and economic environment as well as reliability along the supply chain. At the end of 2024, the Nordex Group also expects the working capital ratio in relation to consolidated sales to be below minus 9 percent. A volume of around EUR 175 million is planned for investments. Furthermore, in view of the positive outlook, the company is convinced that it will achieve the targeted EBITDA margin of 8 percent in the medium term.

"After a challenging 2022, we managed to stabilize our operations during 2023 as the overall market conditions improved, despite some fluctuations. We have further strengthened our balance sheet this year, achieved good order intake and successively increased our profitability. This puts us in a solid starting position for 2024 and beyond. It remains important for us that the political framework conditions and supply chains remain reliable in the long term so that we can efficiently process our order backlog," says José Luis Blanco, CEO of the Nordex Group.

2023 Sustainability Report published

Together with the Annual Report, the Nordex Group is today publishing its eighth Sustainability Report, which has once again been reviewed by auditing firm PwC. This report explains the Group’s sustainability strategy, the latest developments, activities, and key figures in the field of sustainability and also contains the non-financial Group report.

The Annual Report and the Sustainability Report are now available for download from the Investor Relations section of the company's website under “Publications” (ir.nordex-online.com). The Nordex Group will announce its results for the first quarter of 2024 on 14. May 2024.

About the Nordex Group

The Group has installed around 50 GW of wind power capacity in over 40 markets in its corporate history and generated consolidated sales of around EUR 6.5 billion in 2023. The Company currently has more than 10,000 employees. The Group’s manufacturing network includes factories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, India, USA (mothballed) and Mexico. Its product portfolio is focused on onshore turbines in the 4 to 6 MW+ classes which are designed to meet the market requirements of countries with limited available space and regions with limited grid capacity.