Meyer Burger announced on November 16th the continuing positive trend in incoming orders. The volume of new orders reached CHF 367 million as of the end of October 2015, representing an increase of 44% compared to the first ten month period of 2014 (31 October 2014: CHF 254 million). This strong increase in incoming orders is mainly due to various large and mid-sized orders for photovoltaic systems and solutions. The increased project activities in the PV area are clear signs for an improvement in investment behaviour by customers and an increased technology demand to further improve solar cell production lines in terms of cell efficiency and performance capabilities with new technologies (Heterojunction, SmartWire Connection) or upgrade technologies (MB PERC, inspection and measurement systems). The production and delivery of manufactured systems and solutions on the part of Meyer Burger to its customers is also running according to plans.
However, due to project delays in certain larger existing customer projects, the final acceptance for a number of machines and systems by those customers will most likely not occur before year-end 2015 from today’s point of view, but will be delayed into the first half of 2016. Due to the recognition of sales in accordance with the Completed Contract Method (as a rule, net sales from the sale of machinery are recognized when a final acceptance test has been signed by the customer), there are also delays in the recognition of net sales for the orders concerned. For this reason, Meyer Burger has to revise its net sales target for 2015 from about CHF 400 million to between CHF 290 – 340 million. These new expectations in net sales would lead to an estimated loss at EBITDA level of between CHF 40 - 65 million for the fiscal year 2015. The net sales and profit contributions from these orders with delayed acceptances are expected to be realized in the first half of 2016.