SolarWorld AG, Germany's largest solar-panel maker, dropped the most
in almost four months in Frankfurt trading after posting its
second-biggest quarterly loss and forecasting negative earnings for the
year.
SolarWorld fell 11 percent, the biggest
intraday decline since April 18, to trade at 1.174 euros as of 10:07
a.m. local time. The company reported a net loss of 161 million euros
($198 million) last quarter, larger only than its 312.7 million-euro
loss in the fourth quarter of last year.
“The results are way below expectations,” Sven
Kuerten, an analyst at DZ Bank AG who has a sell rating on the stock,
said in an e-mailed note.
Increased competition in the solar-energy
industry has squeezed profit margins, cutting panel prices by half last
year and tipping more than a dozen companies into bankruptcy, including
Q-Cells SE, once the world’s largest cell maker. Impairment costs on
inventories and advance payments also hurt SolarWorld last quarter.
The company is leading a push by about 25
European manufacturers for a European Commission probe into Chinese
rivals, alleging they sold products at a loss on regional markets.
Solarworld forecast negative earnings before interest and taxes for the
full year, citing an “aggressive market situation characterized by
illegal trade practices.”
SolarWorld will invest 50 million euros in new
products as it seeks to “fight price dumping with technological
innovations,” Chief Executive Officer Frank Asbeck said in a statement.
The Bonn-based company reported a 36 percent slump in sales in the first
half from a year earlier.
The call for a European investigation into
Chinese practices follows a similar probe in the U.S., which proposed
anti-dumping duties ranging from 31 percent to 250 percent after ruling
in May that Chinese solar manufacturers sold products below cost.
Copyright 2012 Bloomberg
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/solarworld-falls-most-since-april-on-net-loss