NKT recorded an increase in operational earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to €16m in the second quarter compared to €9.4m in the same period in 2019.
The company said the positive results were due to increased revenue, including an “all-time high order intake” for high-voltage projects, combined with improved production output and cost optimisation.
NKT chief executive Alexander Kara said: “Q2 2020 has been an historical quarter for NKT.
“We were awarded significant high-voltage projects including major shares of the German corridor projects, SuedLink and SuedOstLink.
“NKT continues to be a key contributor to the renewable energy transition in Europe and we have improved our high-voltage order backlog to an all-time high level.
“Our financial performance in Q2 2020 was satisfactory in our power cables business NKT with growth in all three business lines, whereas NKT Photonics continued to be negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.”
NKT said its financial outlook remains unchanged from a company announcement on 5 May.
Revenue is still expected to be €1-1.1bn and operational EBITDA is still expected to be €40-60m.
So far, NKT said it has seen limited impact on the financial and operational performance from the coronavirus outbreak.
The company said the market outlook for the second half of 2020 contains such “significant uncertainties” due to the coronavirus pandemic that an updated and accurate financial outlook cannot be provided at this point of time.
In the second quarter of this year all three business lines delivered €277.8m in revenue, up from €245.0m in the second quarter of 2019, equal to organic growth of 15%.
In the second quarter NKT was awarded three large high-voltage DC interconnector projects with a total value of more than €1.6bn for the German SuedLink and SuedOstLink HVDC corridor projects and the Attica-Crete project in Greece.
After the quarter-end, NKT was also awarded orders valued at almost €500m for the Shetland HVDC Link and the offshore wind connection BorWin5.
The high-voltage order backlog totalled €2.68bn at end of this year’s second quarter, more than double from the of the first quarter of 2020.