On the heels of its lackluster financial forecasts and revised financial earnings, Danish wind turbine giant Vestas has announced a massive wave of layoffs and a major corporate restructuring designed to protect the company from further damage.

General USA Denmark

The announcement adds to a series of earnings misses that have depressed Vestas shares more than 90 percent from a 2008 peak. Vestas and its rival General Electric Co. are suffering from slower demand growth and narrowing margins caused by rising competition from Asian companies and subsidy cuts in Europe.

General Denmark

The company slipped into the red in the third quarter of 2011, posting a net loss of 60 million euros down from a profit of 187 million a year earlier. ..."Vestas has gone from being a business that earns money to suddenly posting a loss. Investors will have to address the fact that Vestas is not living up to expectations."

General Denmark

"Investors are willing to see a new management on board because the current one has no more credibility," Desmaretz said. "Vestas struggled to deliver according to its plan and that is the main problem." The stock closed down 19 percent.

General Denmark

Vestas also said it would announce a "significant change" to its corporate structure on Jan. 12, though it ruled out tapping equity markets for cash. The shares have fallen almost 90 percent from their high in 2008 after a series of earnings misses including the latest announced on Oct. 30.

General Denmark

The first stage of tree felling was recently completed despite local and foreign environmentalists protesting against the destruction of 1,500 hectares of forest to make way for the test centre for 187-metre tall windturbines.

General Denmark

E.ON AG, Germany's largest utility, said its 207-megawatt Roedsand-2 offshore wind park in Denmark was operating at 130 megawatts capacity today because of ice on the turbines. "Stopped turbines must be restarted at site which cannot be done at present weather conditions."

General Denmark

It is closing four plants in Denmark and one in Sweden, including one in Viborg where it has been manufacturing since 1989. The factory moves follow Vestas' decision to move production of turbines away from the UK last year, when it closed its Isle of Wight facility.

General Denmark UK

Skycon, which employs about 450 people in Denmark and the UK, today announced it has filed for suspension of payments to creditors because the economic downturn has left it "cash-strapped".

General Denmark UK

Wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems is more concerned with keeping customers and spreading risk than with retaining its global number-one spot ...Under pressure after a profit warning two weeks ago devastated its stock, Vestas executives sought to allay investor concerns about the competitive threats in an industry where growth has slowed.

General USA Denmark

Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world's largest wind-turbine maker, lost more than a quarter of its value in Copenhagen trading after it reported a larger-than- expected loss and cut forecasts, blaming delayed orders. ..."Vestas has suffered a serious blow to its credibility," Teea Reijonen, a London-based analyst with Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

General Denmark

Opponents of the parliament's decision to place 250-metre high wind turbines at the protected nature area of Østerild Plantag in northwest Jutland are now turning to the EU as their last hope to stop the project. The gigantic turbines are to be part of a new wind power test centre.

General Denmark

Disruption of a natural landscape's aesthetics can hardly be avoided. However, turbines need to be near local power grids as transmission distance drives up the cost of electricity. Combined with other issues, such as the noise generated by "swishing" turbine blades and grinding gearboxes, and "wind turbine syndrome", or supposed infrasound-induced health problems ranging from sleeplessness to learning disabilities, wind power is still battling inertia in many communities.

General Australia / New Zealand USA Denmark

In Denmark, the home of wind power, many of the leading wind power operators are facing significant economic problems, writes VA-listing. Danish Scan Energy, one of Europe's largest independent producers of renewable energy, following a failed IPO just before Christmas, is on the verge of bankruptcy. According to Danish media Scan Energy is struggling to pay the wages of its employees. It has also lodged a bankruptcy petition against the company.

General Europe Denmark

Several regular Danish national football team players claim that a couple of former players took advantage of their trusting nature to secure considerable investment sums from them that inevitably failed. ...‘Naturally it's my own responsibility in the end for where I put my money. But I can still be irritated when people try to rip me off,' said Kahlenberg.

General Denmark

Denmark's wind turbine blade maker LM Glasfiber says it will shed about 900 employees in Europe as part of plans to shift manufacturing to China. ...LM has not seen any dips in the Chinese wind market, in contrast with Europe, the US and India, where the firm has seen markets suffer as the problems with the economy have delayed wind power projects.

General Europe Denmark

After just two months of operation technical problems have forced the blades of the world's largest offshore wind farm to stop turning. ...The wind farm has not been producing energy since last weekend and Dong Energy, which owns the wind farm, is losing approximately 1.1 million kroner each day the turbines stand still.

General Denmark

International wind-turbine maker Vestas has announced that it will lay off 1900 employees including 600 in the UK. The news was well received by markets, with Vestas raising £700m in a Danish share issue the next day and announcing investments in Chinese plants.

General Denmark UK

The economic crisis has slowed the market for wind turbines and has resulted in Vestas expecting to cut jobs. According to Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel in an initial Q1 report, the company is expected to lay off some 1,900 employees, primarily in Denmark and the United Kingdom.

General Denmark UK

Hundreds of workers at one of the south's flagship companies have today been told they will lose their jobs. Workers at Vestas, which has plants in Southampton and the Isle of Wight were this morning called into hear the shock news that the company is closing down its operations in the UK.

General Denmark UK