By Louise Rasmussen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Orsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms, reported a rise in first-quarter operating profit on Thursday thanks to higher profits from its offshore wind farms, and confirmed its forecast for the whole year.
The offshore wind industry is grappling with rising inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain delays.
Following a strategic review of its activities, Orsted, 51% owned by the Danish state, in February reduced its investment and capacity targets, suspended dividend payments and its financial and operational directors resigned .
“I am confident that we are on the right track to achieve our business plan in the future,” CEO Mads Nipper told reporters.
The group’s profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and excluding new partnerships increased 8% from the previous year to 7.49 billion crowns ($1.08 billion), which corresponds to little close to an average forecast of 7.44 billion in a poll of analysts provided by Orsted.
Orsted, which operates and develops wind farms, said profits from offshore parks rose 18% to 6.93 billion crowns, helped by higher wind speeds and an acceleration in electricity production in its Greater Changhua Parks 1 and 2a in Taiwan and South Fork off New York. York State.
Its shares were up 1.5% at 10:09 GMT, rallying from a seven-year low in October to almost 60%.
“We remain focused on project execution and mitigating risks related to the industry’s ongoing supply chain challenges,” Nipper said in a statement.
Orsted reiterated its forecast for full-year EBITDA excluding new partnerships of between 23 billion and 26 billion crowns.
($1 = 6.9582 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Essi Lehto, Anna Ringstrom, Tomasz Janowski and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
