By Michael Oneal | Broadwind
Energy, a provider of windmill equipment and services based in
Naperville, reported a loss of $110.1 million for 2009 on
revenue of $197.8 million.

Much of the loss, came from a non-cash charge of $82.2 million for the
impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets, the company said in
a release. The charge stemmed largely from management’s reassessment of
how certain key customer contracts will perform over time, the
release said.

Excluding the pre-tax impact of these charges, the net loss totaled
$27.9 million or $0.29 per share. This compares with a net loss of
$25.3 million, or $0.28 per share in 2008, on revenue of $217.3 million.

“Broadwind was significantly impacted by lower fourth quarter purchases
under our multi-year framework agreements,” said Broadwind CEO J.
Cameron Drecoll in a statement. “In addition, we believe lower revenues
in our Logistics and Technical Services businesses were the result of
lower wind turbine sales.”

To offset the impact of sharply lower revenue, Drecoll said the company has been cutting expenses aggressively.

“The good news,” he said, “is we are now seeing increases in orders
from some of these same customers, and are actively engaged in
negotiations on other new contracts.”

Drecoll added that despite the losses, the company’s liquidity position
has improved due to a public stock offering earlier this year that
generated $53.9 million in net proceeds. The proceeds were used to repay $19.1
million of outstanding debt and to increase cash balances. The company
now has enough money to fund working capital growth and make key
capital investments, the release said.