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American Superconductor Announces Workforce Reduction

August 11, 2011 by Jeff Shepard

American Superconductor Corp. announced that it has reduced its global workforce by approximately 30 percent and its annualized expenses by approximately $30 million since March 31, 2011. These reductions were made to better align costs with the company’s revenue expectations, which have been affected by business and contractual issues with AMSC’s largest customer, Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. AMSC expects to report a significant net loss on revenues of less than $10 million for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2011.

As part of the action described above, the company announced that it is eliminating 150 positions across the organization. Upon completion of the action, AMSC expects to employ nearly 600 people worldwide. AMSC expects to incur restructuring charges of $3 million to $4 million for severance and related expenses in the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

"These workforce reductions are necessary to maintain the health of the business in the wake of our business and contractual issues with Sinovel," said AMSC President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel McGahn. "Expenses have been reduced in virtually all departments, levels and major geographies, but we have focused on limiting the impact on customer-facing and research and development functions, which are integral to our growth and diversification initiatives."

In addition, the company announced that, by August 16, 2011, it plans to submit to the Nasdaq Stock Market a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq Stock Market listing rules. AMSC continues to work on its restated financial statements for the fiscal quarters ended September 30, 2010 and December 31, 2010, and its financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 and the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2011.