In its financial statements for 2019, Wacker Chemie AG intends to take an impairment of around €750 million on the carrying amount of its production facilities for hyperpure polysilicon. The write-down stems from the continued absence of a recovery in solar-grade polysilicon prices due to the high overcapacity created by Chinese manufacturers.
The exact amount to be written down will become clear during the completion of the financial statements. The impairment will reduce not only the value of property, plant and equipment in the consolidated statement of financial position, but also Group EBIT, WACKER POLYSILICON’s EBIT, and the Group’s net result for the year. Cash flow, on the other hand, will be unaffected by the write-down.
For 2019, WACKER now expects a net result of around €-750 million (previous guidance: slightly positive net income). As previously, today’s guidance excludes special income of €112.5 million in insurance compensation, which WACKER booked in Q3 2019.