German inverter supplier SMA Solar Technology has posted improved financial results for the first nine months of 2023, with sales increasing by more than 84% year-on-year.
The company said in an announcement that its consolidated sales increased to €1,337.4 million (US$1,430.676 million) in the first nine months of 2023, up from €724.1 million in the first nine months of 2022, representing an 84.7% growth.
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SMA’s home solutions segment more than doubled its sales to €486.2 million after the first nine months of the year, compared to €229.3 million in the first nine months of 2022. The commercial and industrial (C&I) solutions segment also increased its sales by 74.4%, from €191.3 million to €333.7 million. Sales in the large scale and project solutions segment were up by 70.5% at €517.5 million compared with €303.5 million in the same period of the previous year.
Apart from its sales, the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also increased significantly by 360.6%, from €50.2 million to €231.2 million. SMA attributed its improved EBITDA to the improvement in production capacity utilisation and the associated fixed cost degression as a result of the increased sales volume.
Net income increased significantly to €180.4 million in the first nine months of 2023, up from €11 million in the same period in 2022.
“Our growth across all segments indicates that we are on the right track with our clear focus on customer centricity and realignment of SMA along the core processes in the segments. The same applies to our strategic action areas, such as storage solutions, which are becoming increasingly relevant for our customers,” said Jürgen Reinert, CEO of SMA.
SMA’s order backlog remained at €2,020.7 million as of 30 September 2023, up from €1,712.8 million in the first nine months last year. More than three quarters (€1,647 million) of the backlog was attributable to the product business, meaning that product-related order backlog decreased only marginally thanks to the excellent order intake in the first nine months of 2023.
Looking ahead, the management of the company reconfirmed its sales and earnings guidance for 2023. Sales will be between €1,800 million and €1,900 million, slightly increasing the previous guidance of €1,700 million and €1,850 million. EBITDA will be between €285 million and €325 million, up from the previous guidance of €230 million and €270 million.
At Intersolar Europe 2022, PV Tech Premium talked to Reinert about the company’s business. Reinert was confident that SMA Solar could deliver double or even triple the volume because of the tailwind coming from politics. Click here to read the interview with Reinert.