Eurozone fears hit cleantech

Following October’s good performance from NYSE Euronext’s cleantech contingent, cleantech shares across all European stock markets suffered large falls during November as concerns about Eurozone economies spooked investors.
Cleantech stocks quoted in Frankfurt did particularly badly as shares in one-time solar sector favourite Q-Cells continued their decline, ending the month down more than 30% at €2.03. More defensive solar sector shares like manufacturing equipment maker Roth & Rau and solar inverter supplier SMA Solar Technology also saw their values drop (by a third and a fifth respectively).

One Frankfurt-listed firm that managed to put the brakes on its own share price slide was Centrotherm Photovoltaics. However, despite the firm’s report of substantial increases in revenues, profits and new orders during November, the market marked its shares down by almost 10% to €26.92 each. (See page 8)

In Spain significant cleantech firms like Solaria Energia y Medio Ambiente and Iberdrola Renovables also suffered share price falls, down 19% and 3% respectively. But Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica’s shares managed to end the month up (by 2.8%) after the company’s announcement that it had significantly boosted its order intake (see page 3).

Scandinavia’s NASDAQ OMX also suffered declines among some of its leading cleantech shares, with Norway’s Renewable Energy Corporation and Denmark’s Greentech Energy Systems and Vestas Wind Systems seeing falls of 24%, 8% and 4.5% respectively.

Austria fared better, with shares in water treatment company BWT marking time during November, while hydropower pumps company Andritz enjoyed an 11% increase in its share price thanks to its report of a strong performance for the first nine months of this year.

In London, Belgian wind turbine gearbox manufacturer Hansen Transmissions bucked the prevailing gloomy cleantech mood by putting almost 20% on to the value of its shares so that they ended November at 52.5p each. However, Hansen’s shares have a long way to go before they regain the ground lost since the start of the year (when the share price was more than £1).
 

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AIM Comment

AIM - a tough market for cleantech compnies - by Andrew Hore

Although a few new entrants have joined AIM this year, cleantech companies are still leaving the junior market. Stock markets around the world are becoming tougher places to raise money again, but the problems with the latest company to shun its AIM quotation date back to its flotation and lack of financial progress since, rather than current market conditions.

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Cleantech Utility Comment

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