* 2008 EBIT rose 51 pct to 668 mln euros
* Shares rise as much as 10 pct, close up 0.4 pct
* Maintains 2009 profit, sales outlook
* Says new market players are sharpening competition
* Says has not seen cancellations in order backlog
(Adds additional CEO comments, analyst)
By Kim McLaughlin
COPENHAGEN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Vestas <VWS.CO>, the world's
biggest wind turbines maker, posted a better than expected 51
percent rise in 2008 operating profit, but its shares gave up
early gains over uncertainty concerning its 2009 outlook.
Vestas is riding a surge in demand for renewable energy,
although Chief Executive Ditlev Engel said some customers are
struggling to secure financing for new projects because of the
global financial crisis.
That crisis, as well as the uncertainty around the expansion
of subsidies in the United States, its biggest national market,
could prompt the company to cut its planned 2009 spending and
even trim some jobs.
"If the world does not improve, we will have to look to cut
jobs at Vestas," Engel told analysts in New York. "This will be
the last resort we will go to if necessary."
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose to 668
million euros ($864 million) last year, from 443 million in
2007, compared with an average estimate given in a Reuters poll
of analysts of 619 million.
Sales rose 24 percent to 6.04 billion euros.
Vestas repeated its forecast for 2009 of sales of 7.2
billion euros and an EBIT margin of 11 percent to 13 percent,
but said expectations for investments of 1.2 billion euros were
subject to an improvement in the order intake in the first four
months this year.
"We believe this will be challenging for Vestas, as the
company's expectations of strong improvements in order intake
with the new U.S. administration will be more feasible from
2010," Standard & Poor's Equity Research said in a note.
The firm raised its recommendation on the back of the
results to "buy" from "sell".
Vestas shares were up as much as 10 percent, but settled and
gave up gains to finish 0.4 percent up at 287 crowns, as Engel
answered a number of questions on the certainty of the company's
2009.
Engel said he believed a number of U.S. customers were
sitting on the fence waiting for the final results of the
negotiations on the country's economic stimulus package before
placing orders.
"What we want to highlight is that if the financial and
banking sector doesn't start operating more on a normal scale
then we will have to relate to that and to what degree and how
much on all areas of the profit and loss statement we have to
see in the next few months," Engel said.
President Barack Obama, who has said the package is
essential to avert a deeper recession, wants to have a bill to
sign into law by this weekend.
Engel said the Jutland-based group had not yet experienced
cancellations or postponements in its order backlog but said new
market players, especially from China, were sharpening
competition.
"I don't think his answers were any change to what you could
already read between the lines in the results statement and how
important the U.S. stimulus package is to orders this year,"
said Jyske Bank analyst Christian Nagstrup.
Vestas, which competes with Spain's Gamesa <GAM.MC>, India's
Suzlon Energy <SUZL.BO> and units of global power generation
giants Siemens <SIEGn.DE> and General Electric <GE.N>, had an
order backlog at the end of the year valued at 5.2 billion
euros, from 4.8 billion at end-2007.
That figure compared with 6.5 billion euros at the end of
the third quarter.
(Additional reporting by Matt Daily in New York, Editing by
Greg Mahlich and Andrew Macdonald)
