On Tuesday morning, German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex released a somewhat better first quarter report than expected, and the company - unlike Vestas - actually managed to post a small positive operating profit.

The announcements from Nordex may well have a ”tiny” positive impact on the Vestas share in Tuesday’s Danish share trading, according to Jacob Pedersen, head of equity research at Sydbank, who told MarketWire.

”If it’s the case that the Nordex share price goes up on this - on some hopes that there may be an upward adjustment later after this good first quarter, then it’s certainly possible that the Vestas share price may also get a small boost. But it’s not something that will really take hold of the share,” says Pedersen.

He points out that Nordex has been a very financially weak player for a long time, and when the company starts to get back on track in terms of earnings, it could also become a stronger competitor.

”A financially stronger Nordex can also be a Nordex that will give Vestas and some of the others some stiffer competition. We are already seeing this, with Nordex having overtaken Siemens Gamesa in onshore wind order intake by a long way. They did that even though they have looked really shaky in terms of earnings and finances for a long time,” says Pedersen.

After 15 minutes of today’s trading, the Vestas share is trading 0.9% higher at DKK 194.30 (EUR 26), while Nordex his up 7% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

In the first quarter, Nordex generated revenue of EUR 1.57bn, corresponding to 29% growth, while analysts had estimated EUR 1.45bn, according to Bloomberg News.

Operating earnings, EBITDA, improved significantly to EUR 52.1m from an EUR 114.9m deficit, resulting in an operating margin of 3.3% compared to minus 9.4% the previous year. The analyst estimate was EUR 16.1m.

”Nordex has delivered something as rare as a positive EBIT. It was actually more than what Vestas managed in connection with their first quarterly report. So this is a report that is significantly better than what we have seen from Nordex for a long time.”

”It helps to indicate that they are taking some big steps forward in terms of earnings, and it’s very much based on the same conditions as for Vestas, namely that the projects that are being built now are significantly more profitable. They are simply taken onto the books at much better sales prices,” says Pedersen.

English edit: Catherine Brett