Vestas ‘no comment’ on sale speculation  

Credit:  James Quilter, Windpower Monthly, 02 July 2012, 10:34am | www.windpowermonthly.com ~~

DENMARK: Vestas is considering putting itself on the market and is in debt restructuring talks, according to reports.

The UK’s Sunday Times said Vestas’ banks including HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, had told the company it needs to prepare a debt restructuring plan.

It said the banks had appointed Ernst & Young to handle talks with Vestas, which has itslef brought in PWC to handle the restructure. The report said Vestas debts are around €2 billion.

Vestas refused to confirm or deny reports. A Vestas spokesman said: “On principle Vestas does not comment on speculation, and we see this as speculation.”

The report comes after an interesting last week for Vestas where it closed one of its factories in China, merged its China and Asia-Pacific divisions and appointed a new COO with a brief to crack down on costs.

Recently, Vestas has also been hampered with problems with fires in its V112 and V90 turbines in Germany and Spain respectively.

In May, Vestas revealed that it was setting aside an additional €40 million in warranty provisions to cover a gearbox bearings malfunction affecting 376 of the machines, which represent 15% of all V90-3MW turbines installed. It also announced a net loss of €162 million for Q1 2012.

In February, Vestas revealed it missed its revenue target for 2011 by 16% amid what the company describes as a “challenging year”. There was also a series of board-level departures.

In January, Vestas cut 2,335 jobs as part of a restructure and cost reduction programme. In a statement, Vestas said it aimed to reduce fixed costs by €150 million, primarily through streamlining support and closing factories where there is less market demand.