There is a queue at the exit door on the stock exchange on Wednesday morning. Ørsted shares are down 21 percent after the company announced that it is writing down its American activities by DKK 28.4 billion.
This is because high interest rates have made it much more expensive to build the wind farms than expected when contracts were signed years ago. Ørsted has therefore decided to abandon the construction of the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 farms.
The write-downs mean that Ørsted has lost DKK 19.9 billion in the first nine months of the year. The company has had sales of DKK 64.9 billion this year so far, which corresponds to a decline of 33 percent compared to the same period last year.
And this despite the fact that the company's offshore wind farms have almost doubled their operating profit and earned DKK 13 billion. The energy giant also expects to set aside an additional 8-11 billion DKK for losses in the fourth quarter.
The Ørsted share peaked in early 2021, when it was traded around 1350. On Wednesday morning, the share is around 275, corresponding to a decrease of around 80 percent.
/ritzau/
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