American Superconductor Corporation has announced cuts in its global workforce of approximately 20 % and its annualised expenses by approximately $30 million compared to 31 March. 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. AMSC expects to report a significant net loss on revenues of around $10 million for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2011.
The company will be eliminating 150 positions across the organisation, reducing its workforce to around 600 people worldwide. It 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 CEO Daniel McGahn. “We have focused [expenditure cuts] on limiting the impact on customer-facing and research and development functions, which are integral to our growth and diversification initiatives.”
The company also intends to submit to the Nasdaq Stock Market a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq Stock Market listing rules, in response to a letter from Nasdaq’s Listing Qualifications Department advising the company that it is not in compliance with Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) due to its inability to file on a timely basis its Quarterly Report. AMSC said it is continuing 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.
