SMA Solar, a German company, will cut 1,100 jobs and lower its full-year forecast

SMA Solar Technology, a German supplier of solar power components, announced on Wednesday that it plans to reduce up to 1,100 positions worldwide and lower its forecasts for this year. This comes nearly two months after the company announced a restructuring plan.

SMA Solar began a restructuring program for the entire company in September to reduce costs by up to 200 millions euros.

The company now expects to lower its group revenue between 1.45 billion and 1.5 billion euro for the entire year.

The company also said that they now expect earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), for the year, to be between minus minus 20 to 20 millions of euros and earnings before taxes and interest (EBIT), between minus 100 to minus 50millions of euros.

Barbara Gregor, CFO of the company said: "We're putting our company on a more streamlined and efficient footing in order to achieve profitable growth for the future."

SMA published its first-quarter results on Thursday morning, revealing that sales had fallen to 1,06 billion Euros from 1,34 billion euros last year. SMA said that EBIDTA (Earned before Interest and Tax) for the first nine months of the year dropped from 231.2 millions euros to 83.5million euros, compared with the same period in last year.

SMA first cut its profit projection in June. It cited the European Parliament elections and the U.S. presidential elections, which contributed to market insecurity. The news caused shares to drop by over 30%.

"We will adjust the cost base in response to the reduced sales volume and the changes in demand," Gregor said.

(source: Reuters)