By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark’s Orsted on Monday asked its shareholders for 60 billion crowns ($9.4 billion), sending the stock sharply lower as the wind farm developer seeks to boost its finances amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to wind power.
Struggling in recent years with soaring inflation and logistical problems that sent costs soaring, the offshore wind industry faced a further setback when Trump suspended licensing on his first day back in office in January.
“Orsted and our industry are in an extraordinary situation with the adverse market development in the U.S. on top of the past years’ macroeconomic and supply chain challenges,” CEO Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.
Orsted shares fell as much as 29% to a nine-year low of 220.2 crowns. At 0815 GMT, they were down 26% at 228.4 crowns.
The rights issue is worth almost half of Orsted’s market value of around 130 billion crowns as of Friday’s close.
Jefferies analysts said in a note that while the fundraising would help to de-risk the company’s balance sheet, the near-term dilution for shareholders “seems substantial”.
Orsted said in a statement that the Danish state, which owns 50.1% of the company, had agreed to subscribe to a similar portion of the share issue, thus retaining a majority stake.
A spokesperson for Norway’s Equinor, which holds a 10% stake in Orsted, said it would “assess the proposal”.
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, Orsted added.
Equinor itself last month took a nearly $1 billion write-down on its separate offshore wind portfolio in the United States, blaming U.S. tariffs and uncertainty in the U.S. market.
Trump campaigned on a promise to end the offshore wind industry, saying it is too expensive and hurts whales and birds.
In April, his administration ordered Equinor to halt development of a fully-permitted wind farm off New York, sending shockwaves through the industry. The order was, however, reversed the following month.
Orsted said uncertainty in the U.S. market had forced it to halt a planned partial divestment of its Sunrise wind project under development also off New York.
The company said it would continue planned divestments of stakes in its Changhua 2 offshore wind farm in Taiwan and Hornsea 3 in Britain. In addition, it has started a process of selling its European onshore wind business, which it said would raise more than 35 billion crowns.
Errboe said proceeds from the rights issue would strengthen Orsted’s capital structure and help it develop the 8.1 gigawatts of offshore wind projects it currently has under construction by 2027.
It said in a separate statement that its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees, rose 9% year-on-year to 13.9 billion crowns in the first half of 2025.
It maintained full-year guidance for an adjusted EBITDA of 25 billion-28 billion crowns and gross investment guidance of 50 billion-54 billion.
($1 = 6.3953 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Anna Ringstrom and Nora Buli. Editing by Terje Solsvik, Stephen Coates and Mark Potter)
