Vestas CFO leaves as profits fall sharply Vestas announced that its chief financial officer and chairman will be leaving after the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer reported a steeper-than-expected fall in profits for the full year and warned of more turbulence to come. The Danish company reported an operating loss of €60m for the full year, which was even worse than the "approx €0" profit which was predicted in a surprise profit warning last month, sending shares in the company down another 13 per cent. IN Energy Following the results the company announced that Henrik Norremark, chief financial officer, had resigned after "briefing the board on the conditions which led to the profits warnings." In a further shake up the company said that its chairman, Bent Carlsen, and two other board members would not stand for re-election at the annual general meeting in March. Vestas warned that the environment for wind turbine makers would continue to be tough in the coming years, particularly if the US does not renew a crucial production tax credit scheme which will expire during 2012. It said that there could be 1,600 lost jobs at its US factories should the scheme be cancelled, adding to the 2,335 redundancies it already announce last year in a bid to shave €150m off annual costs. For the full year, 2011 revenues at Vestas fell 15.6 per cent to €5.8bn while pre-tax profit dropped from €238m to a loss of €153. Earnings per shares fell from €0.77 to a loss of €0.82 and gross margins tumbled 4.6 percentage points to 12.4 per cent. The results are another knock to the credibility of Ditlev Engel, its chief executive, who has battled criticism in recent months. The sharp decline in profits came about chiefly due to commissioning problems at a generator factory in Germany, postponement of project deliveries corresponding to around €1.2bn and higher industrialisation costs for some of its turbines, the company said. "The political attention to renewable energy is overshadowed by severe economic challenges," it added, explaining why it was forced over the year to abandon its 2015 revenue targets, announce a 10 per cent reduction in its workforce and issues two profit warnings. The company added that disruptions in production and challenges in relation to wind turbine installation - for example bad weather and lack of grid connections - may also cause delays that could affect Vestas" financial results for 2012. Vestas has come under increasing competitive pressure in recent years from the likes of Siemens Wind Power, GE Energy, and China's Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Sinovel Wind Group, although it still controls some 25 per cent of the global market Analysts pointed out that, on the plus side, Vestas confirmed that it had received in 2011 firm and unconditional orders for turbines with total capacity of 7,397 megawatts with a value of €7.3bn. Shares in the company are down 68 per cent since the start of last 2011. The dividend was kept at nil.