Ørsted Delivers Strong H1 Results

Source: Ørsted

Ørsted’s Board of Directors has approved the interim report for the first half of 2025, with Rasmus Errboe, Group President and CEO, saying he is satisfied with the company’s strong operational performance which saw earnings of DKK 13.9 billion ($2.2 billion).

The figure supports Ørsted’s full-year EBITDA guidance of DKK 25-28 billion.

The company has however altered the outlook for the offshore division, changing the directional guidance for offshore from 'Higher' to 'Neutral' due to lower wind speeds in the first months of 2025.

A rights issue announced today is expected to strengthen Ørsted’s capital structure and provide financial robustness in the years 2025 through 2027, during which the company will deliver on its 8.1GW offshore wind construction portfolio.

The Danish wind farm developer plans a 60 billion DKK ($9.4 billion) rights issue, citing adverse development in the U.S. offshore wind market.

Ørsted said in a statement that the Danish state, which owns 50.1% of the company, has agreed to subscribe to a similar portion of the share issue, thus upholding a majority stake.

Any shares not subscribed for by the existing shareholders or other investors will be fully underwritten by Morgan Stanley & Co International to provide certainty that the rights issue will be completed.

Ørsted said that as a result of the market developments it has also decided to discontinue the process for a partial divestment of its Sunrise Wind project in the United States.

“We continued to make good progress across our entire construction portfolio according to plan, with almost 70% of the offshore wind turbines installed at Revolution Wind and the first foundations installed at Sunrise Wind in the US. In addition, we’ve successfully reached first power at Greater Changhua 2b and 4, which is a significant milestone for the project.”  

The company is focused on four strategic priorities, Errboe says.

Firstly, with the contemplated rights issue, and with the positive developments related to the successful farm-down of a 24.5% stake in West of Duddon Sands in May as well as the obtained project financing for Greater Changhua 2a and 2b, the company have taken steps to ensure a robust capital structure.

“Secondly, we saw good progress on our construction portfolio across all projects.

“Thirdly, we ensured a focused and disciplined approach towards capital allocation, underlined by not continuing with the Hornsea 4 project in its current form, our strategic decision to not participate in the Danish carbon capture and storage (CCS) tenders in the immediate future, and having launched a sales process for a potential full divestment of our European Onshore business.

“Lastly, we continued to focus on organisational efficiency and on increasing competitiveness. During 2025 and 2026, we will continue to right-size our organisation and lower our costs to become more competitive and flexible as part of our winning formula for the future.”

Results for H1 2025

Operating profit (EBITDA) for the first half year amounted to DKK 15.5 billion compared to DKK 14.1 billion in the same period last year. EBITDA excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees in H1 2025 amounted to DKK 13.9 billion, an increase of 9 % compared to the same period last year.

Earnings from offshore sites amounted to DKK 12.5 billion, which was an increase of DKK 1.1 billion compared to the same period last year. The increase was mainly due to ramp-up of generation at Gode Wind 3, compensations for grid delay at Borkum Riffgrund 3 and higher availability. This was partly offset by lower wind speeds.

Profit for the period totalled DKK 8.2 billion, an increase of DKK 7.3 billion compared with H1 2024.