FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe’s solar industry should prepare to defend its lucrative market in Germany without becoming protectionist as incentive cuts loom there, the head of the world’s largest photovoltaic industry association said.

Feed-in tariffs –the prices utilities have to pay generators of renewable energy — are reduced annually in Germany. However, the government said last month it would make additional one-off cuts in April and July, arguing the sector was still overly subsidized.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German solar company Phoenix Solar will strive to pay a dividend even though painful cuts in solar incentives are looming in Germany, the company’s chief executive told Reuters.

“We should not punish our shareholders for undesirable political developments,” Andreas Haenel said in an interview late on Tuesday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – SolarWorld said it will focus on organic growth rather than on takeovers, as Germany’s biggest solar company by sales braces for a slide in prices for solar components.

“Our main priority is organic growth and takeovers are not on top of our agenda,” Chief Financial Officer Philipp Koecke said in an interview on Tuesday. SolarWorld last year unveiled a strategy to expand its solar module capacities at a time when many players in the industry are still grappling with free-falling prices for solar components and tight financing conditions.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German bioethanol producer CropEnergies sees operating profit rising substantially in the coming fiscal year, the company’s chief financial officer told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We expect a significantly better operating result in 2010/11 and we will be well above the 18.2 million euros ($25.32 million) we had in 2008/09,” Joachim Lutz said in an interview.

FRANKFURT, Jan 29 (Reuters) – BMW <BMWG.DE>, the world’s
biggest premium automaker, forecast a modest rise in car sales
this year and confirmed it expected a 2009 pretax profit despite
the global economic crisis.

“We fully intend to remain the world’s leading provider of
premium vehicles in 2010 and plan to increase sales within the
single-digit percentage range to over 1.3 million units,” Chief
Executive Norbert Reithofer said in a statement on Friday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Investors looking for fresh opportunities in the volatile renewable energy sector should look at stocks in the geothermal industry, a VCH Investment Group fund manager told Reuters on Thursday.

“Geothermal energy, albeit still a tiny market itself, is a young growth area but a strong one. You can see that already happening in the United States, where there is large geothermal activity,” Olaf Koester said in an interview.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Solar company Conergy paved the way for striking a refinancing deal by the end of March thanks to a breakthrough settlement with wafer supplier MEMC, its CEO told Reuters on Monday.

The news led to a relief rally in the highly volatile penny-stock, rising as much as 31 percent on Monday to 1.019 euros a share. At 0956 GMT, shares in the company were 19.3 percent higher.

FRANKFURT/HONG KONG (Reuters) – A potential deep cut in feed-in tariffs in Germany will hit solar companies around the world and increases pressure on large players to reduce exposure to the world’s largest photovoltaic market.

Analysts say that lower prices could result in a shakeout in the industry that drives higher cost players out of business and dissuades new entrants.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Solar shooting star SMA Solar, by far the world’s No.1 maker of inverters, will face stiffer competition this year as industry outsiders are expected to take market share from the company.

For some, investing in Germany’s SMA Solar has resulted in lavish returns, with its share price rising almost 150 percent in 2009, making it easily the top solar performer in the euro zone’s largest economy and the world’s biggest solar market.

* 2009 organic sales fall 0.7 percent to 5.748 bln euros

* 2009 EBIT before special items down 16 pct to 585 mln

* Shares down 2.6 percent in weak market

(Adds analyst comment, background, updates shares)

By Christoph Steitz and Eva Kuehnen

FRANKFURT, Jan 12 (reuters) – Nivea skincare maker
Beiersdorf AG <BEIG.DE> posted a steep drop in full-year
operating profit on Tuesday as its industrial adhesives business
took a hard hit from the global recession.

Chief Executive Thomas Quaas reiterated Beiersdorf would
again grow faster than the market in 2010.