Orsted Braces for Rights Issue Approval After US Offshore Wind Setbacks

Danish offshore wind developer Orsted cut its 2025 profit outlook on Friday, just hours before it is poised to secure shareholder approval for a $9.4 billion emergency rights issue as it seeks to avert a looming credit downgrade.

Once celebrated as a trailblazer in offshore wind, the state-controlled group now finds itself in dire straits, grappling with industry-wide challenges as risks pile up on its U.S. projects due to President Donald Trump's opposition to wind power.

Adding to its troubles, low wind speeds in July and August and a delay to a project under construction off Taiwan prompted it on Friday to cut its operating profit outlook for 2025.

The stakes are high for the Danish firm, which has transformed itself from oil producer DONG Energy into a global renewables leader, its market value increasing fivefold between its 2016 IPO and a 2021 peak.

But supply chain disruptions, surging interest rates, project delays, and Trump’s anti-wind policies have battered the offshore wind sector, sending Orsted’s shares tumbling by 85% from their peak.

At the heart of the drama are Orsted’s U.S. projects Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind, both of which have been thrown into uncertainty.

Two-thirds of the fresh capital it