First Solar to Cut More Than a Quarter of Staff

First Solar Inc. said it would lay off more than a quarter of its staff and restructure operations to focus on newer solar modules, which will lead to $500 million in charges and push the company into the red for the year.

The restructuring, announced Wednesday in response to steep price declines and lower demand in China, will include about 1,600 layoffs out of the company's 6,000 total workers in the U.S. and abroad.

Shares of the Tempe, Ariz.-based solar-panel company, which have lost most than half of their value this year through Wednesday's close, fell a further 9% in after-hours trading to $29.85.

Taking into account the restructuring and asset impairment charges, estimated at $500 million to $700 million, First Solar now projects a loss of $2 to $4 a share for the year, but raised its adjusted profit projection by 30 cents a share to a range of $4.60 to $4.80 a share.

Next year, it projects break-even to 50 cents a share of adjusted profit on $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected an adjusted profit of $1.94 a share on roughly $3 billion in revenue.

Shipments, estimated at 2.8 gigawatts to 2.9 gigawatts this year, are expected to decline to a range of 2.4 gigawatts to 2.6 gigawatts in 2017, while spending on capital projects is expected to roughly double to a range of $525 million to $625 million.

Write to Maria Armental at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 16, 2016 17:55 ET (22:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.