Today’s news / Ørsted stock plummets

Ørsted stock plummets

Ørsted was in the spotlight on Wednesday, when its stock plummeted after billion-kroner write-downs in the US. The stock lost close to a quarter and shed just over DKK 58 billion in market value. This also put pressure on its industry peer Vestas, which dived, however, to a lesser extent. Overall, the Danish C25 index fell by 2.4 per cent to index 1753.04. “When individual companies like Ørsted are hit by so much uncertainty, it can create a knock-on effect and a need for risk aversion,” says Otto Friedrichsen, equity strategist at Formuepleje.
     Late Tuesday evening, the energy group announced billion-dollar write-downs on its U.S. wind turbine projects and announced possible further write-downs on the horizon. However, the financial guidance for the year has been maintained. Investors reacted by selling off massively and sending the stock down by 24.8 per cent to DKK 420.90. At issue is the development portfolio in the US that has been hit hard by higher equipment prices, supply chain difficulties and higher interest rates, and therefore the energy company’s projects are challenged. This has led Ørsted to write down the value of three large offshore wind projects by DKK 5 billion, but at the same time the Group is preparing for much larger impairment charges to lie ahead. At worst, of up to DKK 16 billion on the three American projects. The downturn also affected Vestas, which ended with a minus of 5.3 percent to DKK 160.24. /Marketwire/