Shares on the earth’s largest offshore wind firm have tumbled by practically 1 / 4 after it mentioned it might have to jot down down the worth of its US portfolio by practically £2bn.
Ørsted mentioned it had been hit by a flurry of setbacks in its American enterprise, triggering a speedy sell-off in its shares, listed in Copenhagen.
Of their haste to dump the inventory, traders had reduce the notional worth of the enterprise by practically £7bn by the point the market closed on Wednesday.
The Danish agency’s woes embody hovering prices in its provide chain, echoing issues cited by Swedish rival Vattenfall, which suspended a large British offshore windfarm challenge off the coast of Norfolk final month.
That challenge would have rivalled Ørsted’s Hornsea 2 farm, off the coast of Yorkshire, the world’s largest offshore windfarm with a capability of 1.3GW, able to powering 1.4m properties.
Ørsted’s deliberate US windfarms are considerably smaller however its admission of issues about its ambitions in North America have been the reason for Wednesday’s sell-off.
It pointed to vital issues within the provide chain that have been more likely to have an effect on Ocean Wind 1, Dawn Wind and Revolution Wind, deliberate windfarms off the japanese seaboard of the US.
Delays might price 5bn Danish kroner (£580m), the corporate mentioned, including that the Ocean Wind 1 challenge can be commissioned a 12 months later than scheduled, in 2026.
The corporate has additionally had setbacks in its discussions with US lawmakers about tax credit it hoped to safe on the primary two of the tasks.
Ørsted is making an attempt to safe aid of no less than 40% from the US authorities on all of its tasks. The corporate mentioned talks have been “not progressing as we previously expected” and that it was struggling to get previous the 30% threshold.
Failure to interrupt the impasse in talks might end in a one-off cost of as much as 6bn kroner, Ørsted mentioned.
One other issue is persistently excessive rates of interest, which the corporate predicted would price an extra 5bn kroner if charges didn’t drop earlier than the tip of the third quarter.
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Ørsted reported its half-year outcomes lower than three weeks in the past, hailing its total efficiency within the first six months of the 12 months.
Though it did warn of rising prices within the US, it gave little indication of the dimensions of the dangers that it flagged on Wednesday.
The precise price of its US issues will probably be quantified in its nine-month outcomes as a result of be revealed in November.
“The US offshore wind market remains attractive in the long term,” mentioned the corporate’s Americas chief, David Hardy.
Ørsted was beforehand identified Dansk Olie og Naturgas (Danish oil and pure gasoline, or Dong Power), nevertheless it pivoted to wind energy over the course of the final 15 years.
It has since capitalised on an enormous wave of environment-focused funding, notably through the pandemic. Nevertheless, it has struggled in current months with provide chain issues, which have delayed tasks.
Its share value has dropped by two-thirds from its peak in early 2021, on the peak of the pandemic funding frenzy.
