Shares of German solar cell maker Q-Cells Soar After Earnings More Than Double
By Stefanie Haxel / Feb 5, 2007
source: bloomberg.com
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a3TPKZ7X3_M0
Shares of Q-Cells AG jumped the most since June after the German solar-cell maker said profit more than doubled last year and growth will accelerate in 2008. The shares, today’s biggest gainer in the Stoxx 600, rose as much as 5.30 euros, or 13 percent, to 47 euros and traded at 46.14 euros at 11:42 a.m. local time. That’s the largest one-day gain since June 15. The stock has added 35 percent so far this year, valuing the company at 3.4 billion euros ($4.4 billion).
Net income in 2006 rose to 87.7 million euros from 39.9 million euros a year earlier, the Thalheim-based company said in a statement on Hugin newswire today. Profit was boosted by the increase of its stake in EverQ, a joint venture with U.S.-based Evergreen Solar Inc. Sales rose 80 percent to 539.5 million euros. “I think the share price reaction is overdone,” said Falk Reimann, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart. “According to the company’s own guideline, earnings per share will be 1.26 euros this year and 1.70 euros in 2008. The stock is very high valued at the moment.”
Separately, the sale of new shares to Swiss investor Good Energies Investments BV will have a diluting effect on earnings this year, Reimann said. Q-Cells plans to sell about 34 million new shares to Good Energies in exchange for a holding in Norway’s REC Renewable Energy Corporation, the company said in the statement. The transaction will boost Good Energies’ Q-Cells stake to 49.55 percent of the capital and 29.9 percent of the voting rights. The company didn’t give a figure for the current holding.
Q-Cells signed an agreement with Norway’s Elkem Solar to secure silicon supply for the 10 years through 2018. “Due to the new agreement of metallurgical silicon, Q-Cells AG expects additional strong growth in production volume in 2009,” the solar-cell maker said. Sales and net income will probably increase 30 percent this year. For 2008, Q-Cells aims to boost revenue to about 1 billion euros, with net income amounting to 13 percent of sales.