DGAP-News

SolarWorld AG will continue upward trend in 2015 - Seite 2

-265) million. This includes the positive result from the successful
financial restructuring amounting to EUR 556 million. As at December 31,
2014, SolarWorld's liquid funds had increased to EUR 177 (December 31,
2013: EUR 164) million.

Philipp Koecke, CFO at SolarWorld AG: "As expected, on the operational side
before depreciation and amortization, we achieved a turnaround in 2014.
EBITDA was again positive also without one-off effects. With this, we have
achieved an important goal in the previous fiscal year. This was mainly a
result of the many operational activities within the group to increase
efficiency and reduce costs."

Forecast for fiscal year 2015
In the current fiscal year, SolarWorld will continue the upward trend and
profit from expected growth in the global solar market. The company had a
good start into 2015 and increased its groupwide shipments in the first
quarter of 2015 by more than 30 percent versus previous year's quarter.

For 2015 as a whole, the group plans to increase its shipments including
the business with solar wafers and cells by at least 25 percent, and in
this way for the first time exceed the 1 gigawatt mark. In 2015, more than
50 percent of group shipments should be achieved in the strongly-growing
U.S. solar market. In Europe, the group is also striving for an increase in
shipments and market share, despite difficult conditions. The largest
European sales market will likely remain Germany, followed by the UK and
France. In the Asia/Pacific region, SolarWorld wants to continue to make
gains especially in Japan, where the group is represented by its own sales
office.

To achieve the planned sales growth, the group will continue to increase
capacity at the production sites Freiberg (Saxony), Arnstadt (Thuringia)
and Hillsboro (Oregon, United States). The goal is a groupwide module
capacity of 1.6 GW. In addition, SolarWorld is switching its entire cell
production to the high-efficiency process PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear
Cell). This will allow SolarWorld to offer its customers even higher
performance, as well as to further improve the efficiency of its
production, thus strengthening international competitiveness.

Worldwide, SolarWorld will continue to serve the quality segment of the
solar market and create added value for customers using high-performance
technology and offering a range of complete solar power solutions. On this
basis, consolidated revenue is expected to rise in 2015 in line with the
sales trend by at least 25 percent compared with 2014, to more than EUR 700