Akasol registers losses last quarter due to pandemic

The battery system manufacturer Akasol has presented its business figures for the first quarter of 2020. Revenue and EBIT were both below the figures for the same quarter of the previous year – mainly due to corona-related production interruptions from the company’s own customers.

At 8.0 million euros, revenues were down on the same quarter of the previous year (9.1 million euros), which Akasol attributes to the negative effects of the pandemic which became apparent from the end of February. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the first quarter of 2020 were minus 2.4 million euros (Q1 2019: 0.0 million euros). The quarterly loss under the Covid-19 framework was within the company’s own expectations, Akasol said.

“Our economic environment was already significantly impacted by the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, beginning at the end of February,” says CFO Carsten Bovenschen. “During this time, some of our series customers suspended their operations interrupting production of up to two months to contain the spread of the virus, so that AKASOL was no longer able to deliver ordered systems to the customers for logistical reasons, so no further revenues could be generated in March.”

Akasol itself did not interrupt production and produced battery systems in stock. For this reason, the total performance in the first quarter was increased from 10.1 million euros in 2019 to 12.9 million euros. For the second half of the year, the company expects not only an operational recovery but also strong catch-up effects. The German battery system maker maintains that an important element has been the placement of the order for Alstom to supply the supply of battery systems for more than 40 hydrogen fuel cell trains, of the type Coradia iLint, which they say is the world’s first fuel-cell-driven commuter train.

The company also points to the high demand and the order backlog of around two billion euros up to 2027, for which Akasol is currently building a new head office and a new production facility. “With up to 5GWh in total capacity at the new Gigafactory 1, we are well-positioned to deliver the battery systems our series customers have ordered for the years ahead,” says Akasol CEO Sven Schulz. In conjunction with the series production site in Langen, the company will have “by far the greatest capacity in Europe for the production of battery systems for commercial vehicles.”

It was only at the end of April that Akasol presented its balance sheet for the full year 2019 at a virtual press conference. The company increased its turnover from 21.6 to 47.6 million euros. Overall, the battery system manufacturer is not yet profitable, with an adjusted EBIT of -2.4 million Euros. If the one-off effects are not deducted, the minus of 5.3 million euros is even slightly higher.

akasol.com (pdf)