Vestas: blowing in the wind One profit warning is unfortunate; two in the space of three months looks like cluelessness. The shares of Danish wind turbine maker Vestas tumbled 19 per cent on Wednesday after its latest earnings bombshell, blamed on project delays and other operational difficulties. That followed its big earnings miss in the third quarter. Vestas chief executive Ditlev Engel is running out of excuses. All the more reason for rivals such as GE or Siemens to call their advisers. Vestas" problem is its inability to meet the expectations of customers or investors. Despite an impressive order book, installations have variously been hampered by weather conditions or late turbine deliveries. Last October, Vestas cut its forecast for earnings before interest and tax in 2011 by €250m; this week it cut the forecast to zero. Sure, cash flow is strong. But between then and now, about €500m of earnings appear simply to have gone with the wind. Investor confidence is shattered. The comparison with another falling Nordic star - Nokia - is apt. Each has been tripped up by a market it used to dominate but no longer seems to understand. Nokia's shares are down 86 per cent from their high of mid-2007; Vestas" have fallen by 90 per cent since 2008. Vestas is due to announce a restructuring next week. This will need at a minimum to address its ballooning cost base: at least €125m of missing earnings in 2011 are the result of cost overruns. Investors should be sceptical about whether Mr Engel, who has been chief executive since 2005, is the man to do the housekeeping. In any case, Vestas" problem is strategic as much as structural. Whether or not it materialises next week, a change of leadership is the only way to address that. With its earnings visibility gone and competition and regulatory risk rising, rivals should meanwhile be looking at Vestas" €7bn order book and thinking "We could do better."