MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR), the parent of SunEdison, has announced its fourth-quarter and full-year results. The business’s quarterly sales of $600.7M have remained stable from the previous quarter, but have fallen by 17% from $717.8M in the same quarter last year. The company’s gross margin has continued to improve from negative 8.2% in Q4-2011 to positive 14.4% in Q3-2012, and finally MEMC ended the year with a positive 18%. The company has swung to an operating income of $67.8M for the quarter from a massive operating loss of $1.28B last year. This has helped MEMC to reduce its net loss to $11.8M from $1.48B in Q4-2011, but the current loss has come after it reported a net income of $37M in the previous quarter.
In non-GAAP terms, the company earned revenues of $704.3M which translated into earnings per share of $0.08 – easily outperforming the analysts’ estimates. According to data compiled by Thomson Reuters, Wall Street was expecting $661.46M in revenues, which would have translated into a loss per share of $0.01.
The solar energy segment remains the backbone of the company, making the biggest contribution of $91.8M to the operating income, a rise from a loss of $1.16B in the same quarter last year and an operating profit of $75.8M in the previous quarter. The current solar energy result also includes a deferred income of $54.4M from the 2010 70MW Rovigo solar project. SunEdison’s quarterly shipments were 52MW, which are up 8.33% sequentially and down 49% year-over-year. The semiconductor materials segment has also swung to an operating income of $3.1M from a loss of $61.4M in the same quarter last year, but has fallen by 64.3% from $8.7M in the previous quarter.
Commenting on the results, MEMC’s CEO Ahmad Chatila said, “In semiconductor, our cost reductions have increased our operating leverage, and in solar, we have built a platform for growth that can take advantage of declining solar materials pricing through a flexible sourcing strategy.”
In the previous quarter, the company interconnected 106MW of solar projects, which includes 30MW of sale-leaseback projects. By the end of 2012, the company had 73MW of projects under construction.
For the full year, the company’s net sales in 2012 have fallen by 6.83% to $2.53B. This represented a 10.32% decline in semiconductor sales to $917.5M, and a 4.73% decline in solar energy segment sales to $1.61B. However, the business has been successful in controlling its costs as it went from reporting an operating loss of $1.3B for fiscal 2011 to an operating profit of $57.2M in 2012, while its net loss dropped by 90.22% to $148.7M.
MEMC will reveal its future strategy as well as Q1-2013 and full year outlooks on 13th March, on the back of its Capital Markets Day. However, Chatila did offer a glimpse into their strategy: “In 2013, we will strengthen our leadership position by penetrating new markets in solar and further streamlining our semiconductor operations.”
