Verbund announces EUR 144 mln impairment loss on the wind farms in Romania

Newsroom 22/10/2014 | 08:47

Austrian energy group Verbund said it will be forced to write down a significant part of its investment in one of the largest wind parks in Romania due to legislation changes.

“Regulatory intervention in the market for green electricity certificates by the Romanian government and a massive surplus of green electricity certificates are pushing down revenue at VERBUND’s Romanian wind farms. Due to trigger factors, an impairment test was performed, revealing the need to recognise a write-down. This depresses the Group result by around EUR 144 million”, according to a press release from the company.

Verbund AG’s management announced on Wednesday that it is raising its earnings forecast for financial year 2014. Based on the updated planning, Verbund is set to generate EBITDA of around EUR 770 million (previous forecast: EUR 690 million) and a Group result of around EUR 85 million (previous forecast: EUR 70 million) in 2014.

The Austrian group invested EUR 380 million in its wind farm in Casimcea, in the Dobrogea region, one of the largest wind parks in Europe. Inaugurated last year in June, the Casimcea wind park has a total capacity of 225 MW which could be extended to 280 MW by 2016.