Akasol remains in the red

The German battery system supplier Akasol was able to significantly increase its sales in the first nine months of the current year. The bottom line, however, is still a loss of millions.

Compared to the same period last year, Akasol was able to increase sales by 130.9 per cent to 31.3 million euros. The loss before interest and taxes amounted to 2.7 million Euro in the first three quarters of the year (previous year: -1.0 million Euro). The order backlog as of September 30, 2019, stood at around EUR 2 billion by 2027.

At the end of the first half of the year, Akasol had reported a slightly positive EBIT. CFO Carsten Bovenschen justified the current quarterly loss with “important investments in preparing the organizational structure and production capacities for our further growth”. A look at the sales figures shows that business is picking up fundamentally: In the first nine months of this year, Akasol has already generated 45 per cent more sales than in the full year 2018 (21.6 million euros).

According to Bovenschen, the company is also taking advantage of the “flexibility” in “appropriate points” to mitigate earnings due to the major orders of two customers being postponed until the 2020 financial year. For example, the three-shift operation at the Langen site in Hesse will not be resumed until the beginning of 2020, when the second production line will go into operation there.

“In the past nine months we have recorded a strong and sustained high demand for our high-performance battery systems,” says CEO Sven Schulz. “with a particular focus on our newAKASystemAKMCYChigh-energy battery system, for which we already received a follow-up order in the high three-digit million euro range from one of our serial customers in September.” While Akasol has never explicitly mentioned the customer, this is probably Volvo Trucks.

For the 2019 financial year, the company expects sales of between 43 and 46 million euros. According to the forecast, EBIT will be negative “in the low single-digit million euro range”.

akasol.com (PDF)