Vestas First Quarter Earnings Up On Year Previous

Vestas, one of the biggest names in wind energy manufacturing, released their own first-quarterly earnings on Wednesday, showing revenue, earnings, and free cash flow increased over the same quarter in 2013.

According to the press release put out by the Danish manufacturer, Vestas generated €1.283 million in revenue, an increase of 17% over 2013’Q1. The company took in 1,188 MW of “firm and unconditional wind turbine orders” in the first quarter of this year, while the value of their backlog of orders amounted to €6.9 billion as at the 31st of March.

“As we expected, first quarter showed improvements in all major areas,” said Group President & CEO Anders Runevad. “This is a result of a lot of hard work from my colleagues and we remain focused on executing on our strategy, Profitable Growth for Vestas.”

On top of their order backlog, Vestas is also reaping it in thanks to service agreements, which amounted a future revenue of €6.9 billion at the end of the same period.

The return to profit surprised most analysts, who had expected the company to suffer further losses. 2013’Q1 saw the company lose €151 million, but after selling off numerous assets, the company seems to have rebounded.

“To become predictable and stable is the aim,” Anders Runevad, said in a phone interview Wednesday, attended by Bloomberg. “That’s also why we work on being more flexible. You have to recognize the fact that the market we are in is a volatile market.”

The news comes on the heels of competitor’s Gamesa’s similarly impressive first-quarterly earnings report, who announced a net profit of €17 million in 2014′Q1.