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Ørsted plans to cut about a quarter of its workforce as it retreats from a period of aggressive expansion following several setbacks, as political changes and higher interest rates hit the offshore wind industry.
The company said on Thursday that it planned to cut about 2,000 positions from its 8,000-strong workforce by the end of 2027, through a combination of natural attrition, redundancies and asset sales.
Ørsted has this week finished raising more than $9bn in a rights issue triggered by problems in the US, where the Trump administration’s hostility to the sector has spooked investors.
The Danish company and its counterparts have also been struggling due to higher interest rates following the pandemic, while an overstretched supply chain has pushed up equipment costs.
Ørsted has paused a major offshore wind project in the UK and walked away from two in the US, and is selling off its entire European onshore wind business.
“This is a necessary consequence of our decision to focus our business and the fact that we’ll be finalising our large construction portfolio in the coming years — which is why we’ll need fewer employees,” said chief executive Rasmus Errboe.
Ørsted is focusing on finishing the 8.1 gigawatts of offshore wind projects it has under construction around the world, and will then focus its attention on Europe and select markets in Asia-Pacific.
Errboe added that greater efficiencies should save Ørsted DKr2bn ($311mn) annually from 2028. The company plans to make around 500 workers redundant this year, including around 235 in Denmark.
Ørsted, 50.1 per cent owned by the Danish state, has transformed from an oil and gas producer into a renewable energy company, mostly in offshore wind. At one point it was worth more than oil major BP, with a market valuation of over $90bn.
But its shares have since slid as investor enthusiasm for green stocks in 2020 and early 2021 waned, and it is now worth about $25bn. The stock climbed 1.6 per cent on Thursday morning.
Ørsted launched a DKr60bn rights issue in August, saying that the Trump administration’s efforts to block a rival project had stymied efforts to sell off a stake in its Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm.
It then received a stop work order against another of its US projects, Revolution Wind, although it has persuaded a US judge to lift the order for now.
Errboe had already signalled ahead of today’s announcement that he planned further spending cuts to reflect lower levels of activity.
