8. februar 2012, 12:32 – opdateret 8. februar 2012, 12:46

Vestas’ chairman of the board Bent Erik Carlsen, his deputy chairman, and head of finance have been forced to resigned after disastrous 2011 figures showing a bottom-line loss of DKK236m (€166m) for the wind-energy giant. Mr Carlsen said he had been prepared to continue, ‘for the sake of ‘continuity’ but had been forced out by a group of major investors. Questions are now being asked as to whether CEO Ditlev Engel can survive the expected stock-market bloodbath.

SAS posted a wider-than-expected 2011 pre-tax loss of DKK1.42bn mainly due to the collapse of its former Spanair subsidiary which filed for bankruptcy and halted flights in January. The struggling airline hasn’t turned a profit since 2007 and announced major cutbacks three weeks ago that will eliminate 300 administrative jobs in an effort to reduce costs by as much as 5 percent and boost earnings by DKK4bn in 2012 and 2013.

Lundbeck is preparing for a tough two years as its anti-depressive drug Lexapro disappears from the lucrative US market this Spring and the Cipralex patent expires in 2012. Sydbank analyst Søren Løntoft said he expected a ‘drought period’ for the company until new pipeline products hit the market.”You can’t just replace massive sales from one day to the next,” he said. “When a patent expires it can have a drastic effect on the bottom line.”