Spanish Success

Solaria Energia y Medio Ambiente, the only Spanish solar company listed in the stock exchange has released financial results for the initial three quarters of year 2010. After this period, Solaria presents solid figures that reflect the viability of the photovoltaic (PV) market and provide a positive outlook for the year's final quarter. During the first nine months of 2010, sales figures reached over €107 million, which means 54% more than sales seen in the same period the previous year, even including non-recurring sales of the Alhama-Murcia and Villamañán-León plants.  

The most significant fact derived from the figures reported is that they confirm the change seen in the company's business model. While the domestic market presents very few opportunities, Solaria has placed a bet on growing in new buoyant markets and so achieve that 70% of the company's sales were made abroad. This entails a total change in business model, especially if we compare these figures with the previous year's for the same period, when 97% of sales were made domestically.  During the initial three quarters Solaria's sales per division were 65% in PV modules, 23% in projects and 11% in generation, operation and maintenance, with 1% in others. Projections for FY 2010 are kept at the same level as in the first quarter this year, with confidence in reaching €200 million in sales.

Regarding figures in the P&L account, Solaria recorded a positive EBITDA of 9% to reach €9.1 million.  On the other hand, EBIT reached over 2.9 million, while net profit is close to €1.8 million. These figures are particularly meaningful if we take into account the regulatory uncertainty surrounding this sector at a domestic level and the multiple speculations and rumours over the creation of a new legislation framework which, obviously bear an impact on the industry's expectations and on stock prices.

On the other hand, Solaria has reached a new production record of 77.2MWp in this period. 37 MWp were produced in the third quarter of the year

Last, throughout this quarter Solaria has initiated a shareholder remuneration policy with a payout of €0.02 per share (yield at payment date is 1.20%), and cancelled the own stock held, representing 1.42% of the shares in issue. Additionally, this period saw the kick-off of a new share buy-back program, the maximum being 10% of the stock issued, under which  maximum equivalent to 10% of the share capital.