“SMA Solar: A stock market darling loses its shine”
Increased pricing pressure has forced leading German solar inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology to drastically cut costs, Franz Hubik writes in Handelsblatt. The publicly listed company is shutting down its second biggest manufacturing plant, eliminating hundreds of jobs and selling off its railway technology division while its stock price plummets. While SMA posted a 15 percent increase in first-half revenue to 494 million euros and currently expects a full-year operating profit of between 80 and 120 million euros, the company is facing shrinking business in China, where the solar market has collapsed. That could lead to even greater pricing pressure in 2017 as Asian manufacturers lower inverter prices even further, the article says.
Read the article in German here.
Read SMA’s press release in English here.