Top executive resigns from Vestas

DANISH wind turbine manufacturer Vestas said yesterday that its chief financial officer had resigned after less than a year in the post, dealing a blow to the company in its attempts to win back investor confidence.

Vestas Wind Systems has suffered several profit warnings as the wind power market takes a downturn, due to falling subsidies from cash-strapped governments, tough competition and global economic uncertainties.

The company said in a statement that chief financial officer Dag Andresen would leave for personal reasons, to be replaced by Swedish national Marika Fredriksson, former chief financial officer of Autoliv, the world’s biggest maker of car safety equipment. It gave no further explanation for the departure and Mr Andresen could not be reached for comment.

“He (Andresen) was a very, very important, almost a front figure, in the attempt to win investor confidence back for Vestas,” said Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen.

The company’s shares, which had spiked to a near six-month high of 49.95 Danish krona ($8.76) as recently as late last month, fell as much as 5% and traded down 4.2% yesterday morning, against a 0.6% fall in the Copenhagen Stock Exchange benchmark index.

“It is a problem for Vestas in the short term because the shares trade on confidence, not on fundamentals,” said Alm Brand analyst Michael Jorgensen.

Mr Andresen had taken up the position in August last year following the resignation of predecessor Henrik Norremark, who was held responsible for a second profit warning in three months.

The new chief financial officer would take over the role on May 1, the company said. Reuters