SMA Solar Technology AG, the German solar inverter manufacturer, reported a return to profitability in the first half of 2026, posting a net result of €72.8 million compared with a €42.4 million loss in the same period a year earlier. The company, based in Niestetal, Germany, announced the results on August 13, 2026, alongside a raised full-year guidance that reflects growing management confidence in a restructuring programme launched to address the sharp downturn the solar inverter industry experienced through 2024 and 2025.
Group sales for the first six months reached €686.6 million, roughly flat compared with €684.9 million in the same period of 2025 — a figure that understates underlying momentum, since it includes a €22.3 million reduction tied to reimbursed US customs duty payments that had previously been passed through to customers. Excluding that effect, sales would have reached €708.9 million, representing underlying growth of roughly 4 per cent year-over-year.
The earnings improvement was substantial by any measure: EBITDA before one-time effects rose to €65.9 million from €50.3 million a year earlier, a 32 per cent increase, while reported EBITDA including one-time items jumped to €88.3 million from just €9.1 million in H1 2025. Those one-time effects included €22.4 million in positive contributions from sales of previously written-down inventory and €18.6 million in reimbursed US customs duty payments — gains that, while non-recurring, reflect genuine cash recovered rather than accounting adjustments alone.
Performance diverged sharply between SMA's two main business divisions. Large Scale & Project Solutions, the company's utility-scale inverter business, saw sales decline 4.7 per cent to €542.1 million, a fall the company attributed primarily to the accounting treatment of the US customs duty reimbursements being recorded as sales reductions rather than to any underlying weakness in project demand. Home & Business Solutions, by contrast, delivered standout growth, with sales rising 24.5 per cent to €144.5 million from €116.1 million a year earlier, driven by a series of new product launches including the Sunny Tripower Hybrid X, SMA Storage N, and a new SMA Backup Solution, alongside supporting Energy Planner and Energy Maximizer software.
SMA's balance sheet also strengthened meaningfully over the period. Free cash flow rose to €71.8 million from €65.5 million, net cash climbed to €244.6 million as of June 30 from €176.4 million at the end of 2025, and the company's equity ratio improved to 31.7 per cent from 28 per cent. Net working capital declined to €178 million from €213 million at year-end 2025, representing 12 per cent of sales — an improvement the company attributed to higher trade payables tied to strong second-quarter sales, alongside rising advance customer payments, which climbed to €212 million from €159 million.
Perhaps the most forward-looking indicator in the results was SMA's order backlog, which reached €1.8 billion as of June 30, 2026, up sharply from €1.2 billion a year earlier — providing management with meaningful revenue visibility heading into the second half of the year. Having already raised full-year guidance on July 16, SMA now expects 2026 sales of between €1.625 billion and €1.725 billion, with EBITDA projected at €180 million to €230 million, and management indicating it expects sequential improvement through the third quarter, with the fourth quarter planned as the year's strongest period.
SMA's turnaround carries broader significance for Europe's solar manufacturing sector, which has faced intense competitive and pricing pressure from lower-cost Asian manufacturers over recent years, alongside the disruptive effects of shifting US tariff policy on companies with meaningful American sales exposure. The company's own guidance notes that further deviations remain possible depending on how trade and geopolitical conditions evolve, including potential tightening of existing trade restrictions or broader geopolitical tensions that could affect tariffs and currency dynamics.
Still, with Home & Business Solutions still expected to remain loss-making for the full year — though with substantial improvement over the prior year, as management targets a path to break-even — and with the company explicitly describing its current phase as a transition from restructuring toward a more competitive, scalable operating model, SMA's H1 2026 results read less as a declaration of full recovery and more as evidence that the company's multi-year restructuring effort is beginning to show measurable financial results. For an industry closely watched as a barometer of European renewable energy manufacturing competitiveness, SMA's swing to profitability offers a cautiously encouraging data point.
