Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger has published its preliminary financial results for the first half of the year, which include total sales of CHF48.7 million (US$57.8 million) and module sales of CHF43.4 million (US$51.5 million).
The company also noted that it had cash and cash equivalents of CHF158.6 million (US$188.2 million) in the first six months of 2024. As these are just preliminary financial results, these are the only metrics the company has released, but are ominous reading for the company; its latest sales figure, for instance, is the second consecutive six-month period which has seen its sales fail to exceed US$60 million, after doing so in both of the previous six-month periods.
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The company’s sales and cash and cash equivalents are also lower than the previous two six-month periods to begin the year, as shown in the graph below.
Notably, the publication of its full half-year results has been delayed until the end of October at the latest, with the SIX Exchange Regulation, the Swiss regulator, allowing Meyer Burger an additional month to finalise and publicise its figures. While the regulator allowed this delay, Meyer Burger noted that it “reserves the right to potentially suspend trading” in the company’s securities if it fails to publish its final results by 31 October.
The delay of the publication of financial results is rarely a good sign, with fellow module manufacturer Maxeon delaying the publication of its results for the first quarter of 2024, and subsequently facing delisting from the Nasdaq exchange. While Meyer Burger is not in similarly dire straits, the company has endured a number of financial challenges in recent months, including plans to cut around 200 jobs from its workforce and the replacement of its CEO.
As part of the SIX Exchange Regulation’s allowances made to Meyer Burger, the company will have to provide more information on “the measures of the restructuring programme” in its upcoming results, so there will likely be more clarity as to how the company will reorganise itself in the coming weeks.
Meyer Burger has consistently blamed the presence of low-cost Chinese PV modules in Europe for its financial struggles, with former CEO Gunter Erfert, and current CEO Franz Richter, blaming Chinese manufacturers for creating “unprecedented distortions in the European solar market” earlier this year.
