News

American Superconductor Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2006 Financial Results

May 10, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

American Superconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: AMSC), reported financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended March 31, 2006.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 were $14.3 million, and the net loss was $11.0 million, or $0.34 per share. The net loss included a $5.0 million long-lived asset write-down related primarily to the company's 1G HTS wire manufacturing equipment and a $1.6 million write-down of a portion of AMSC's 1G HTS wire inventory. These write-downs were done in connection with the completion of the company's migration from first generation (1G) to second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire as announced on May 1, 2006. Revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 were $12.9 million and the net loss was $8.2 million, or $0.28 per share. Included in the net loss for the fiscal 2005 fourth quarter was a $2.7 million litigation settlement with a past financial advisor to AMSC.

"American Superconductor accomplished a number of its major benchmarks during fiscal 2006 and is on track to achieve its key objectives for fiscal 2007," said Greg Yurek, chief executive officer. "One of our most notable accomplishments was the rapid progress we made in developing and scaling up manufacturing of our proprietary 2G HTS wire. This enabled us to complete the migration from 1G to 2G technology ahead of schedule. I am pleased to report that in conjunction with this migration, AMSC just received an order for 3,000 meters of 2G wire from a major electrical equipment manufacturer in the Asia-Pacific region. This only adds to our excitement about the prospects for our next-generation wire."

"We expect fiscal 2007 to be a momentous year for AMSC as we deliver a series of very important world firsts," said Yurek. "This year, we expect to deliver the world's first 36.5-megawatt ship propulsion motor to the U.S. Navy; ship the world's first commercial HTS power grid product -- the SuperVAR(R) synchronous condenser -- to an electric utility; install and operate the world's first transmission voltage HTS power cable in a commercial power grid; and achieve profitable growth in our Power Electronic Systems business unit. We have a strong balance sheet that has enabled us to execute our business plan, and we expect our balance sheet will remain strong as we enter fiscal 2008 one year from now."