NIESTETAL (dpa-AFX) – Solar technology manufacturer SMA Solar continues to grapple with declining demand, particularly in the residential and commercial systems market. The company also faces intense competition and pricing pressures. However, business with major customers and large-scale projects has recently stabilized, albeit at a low level. Chief Financial Officer Kaveh Rouhi stated that the company is on the right track and reaffirmed the lowered annual targets announced in early September, according to comments made during Thursday's release of the quarterly report. Despite this, the company's share price fell.

At one point, the SDax-listed stock was down nearly 13 percent. Most recently, losses narrowed to just over two percent, closing at 29.86 euros. Observers attributed the drop to profit-taking by short-term investors, especially since the stock has more than doubled in value in 2025. Nevertheless, the long-term outlook remains bleak despite increasingly promising signs of a bottoming out. At the start of 2024, shares were still trading around 60 euros.

The results from the manufacturer of solar inverters and energy management solutions met expectations, wrote Jefferies analyst Constantin Hesse in his initial assessment on Thursday. All eyes were on the strong order intake, which reached a record in the large-scale plant segment.

Despite this, the group's total order backlog fell over the year to the end of September from just over 1.4 billion euros to just under 1.3 billion euros. According to the company, this reflects the current demand situation. However, demand in the residential photovoltaic market also picked up again in the third quarter.

Group revenues rose by 7 percent year-on-year to 1.13 billion euros in the first nine months. Before interest, taxes, and depreciation (EBITDA), SMA posted a loss of just under 17 million euros, compared to an operating profit of 83.5 million euros previously. This result was impacted by impairments, write-offs, and provisions for purchase obligations, as well as value adjustments on receivables. However, the loss was not as severe as analysts had feared. The group result amounted to minus 144.5 million euros, after a profit of 34.7 million euros a year earlier.

Given the declining demand in the residential and commercial systems market, expanding the restructuring program was a logical step to improve competitiveness, CFO Rouhi said in the statement. “We are making good progress in implementing the measures and are achieving steady, measurable improvements.”

SMA plans to cut 1,450 jobs and reduce costs for materials, service providers, advertising, and marketing. These measures are expected to save the company over 100 million euros annually./lew/niw/mis