By Christian Moess Laursen
Vestas Wind Systems beat market expectations as it swung to a full-year pretax profit, boosted by a strong order intake, and said it sees higher revenue in 2024.
The Danish wind-turbine maker said Wednesday that it swung to a fourth-quarter pretax profit of 173 million euros ($186.1 million) from a loss of EUR480 million in the same quarter a year prior, beating market views in a company-compiled consensus of EUR138 million.
Revenue dipped slightly to EUR4.77 billion in the quarter from EUR4.78 billion, but beat consensus of EUR4.58 billion.
For the full year, Vestas comfortably met its revenue target, booking EUR15.38 billion versus a EUR14.5 billion-EUR15.5 billion range. This was in large part driven by growth in its service business, it said.
The company reached a record full-year order intake of 18.4 gigawatts, driven by strong growth in both offshore and onshore, particularly in the U.S., it said.
Vestas’s performance was helped by an improving business environment, but continued geopolitical volatility and slow permitting and insufficient grid build-out across markets are expected to cause uncertainty in 2024, Chief Executive Officer Henrik Andersen said.
The Aarhus-based company expects to post higher revenue in 2024, aiming for EUR16 billion to EUR18 billion, while targeting an adjusted EBIT margin of between 4% and 6% and total investments of around EUR1.2 billion.
Write to Christian Moess Laursen at christian.moess@wsj.com
