The battery manufacturer Varta has slipped into the red.
From July to September there was an adjusted loss before interest and taxes of 2.5 million euros, as the group surprisingly announced on Thursday based on preliminary figures.
Gustave parts
Business correspondent in Stuttgart.
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In the same quarter of the previous year, Varta had made a profit of 70 million euros.
Sales fell by a seventh to 194 million euros in the period.
In 2021 as a whole, Varta had still achieved a margin of 31 percent.
Varta, which is traded as a German battery hope, cited higher raw material and energy costs as the reason.
In addition, projects with customers have been delayed.
It should also be batteries for Apple's Airpods.
Apple wants to avoid being dependent on individual suppliers.
Stock rides a roller coaster
Investors found it difficult to make sense of the numbers.
The share price initially fell by about 5 percent, then turned up to 3 percent, only to slide back into the red shortly afterwards.
Shortly before the close of trading, the value was slightly negative and thus in the middle of the M-Dax.
The stock has lost four-fifths of its value within a year, around half since mid-September alone.
The group initially lowered its targets for this year in the summer and conceded them entirely in mid-September.
At the end of September, the company also saw off its long-time CEO Herbert Schein, who is now supposed to build up the business with batteries for electric cars, on which Varta has great hopes.
The Austrian Markus Hackstein, who is considered to be a confidant of Michael Tojner, will take over as spokesman for the board.
Tojner is a controversial Austrian billionaire who is the majority owner of Varta through a Swiss conglomerate.
Tojner caused a stir at the end of September amidst the turmoil by selling a large stake in Varta.
An investigation by the financial supervisory authority Bafin has not yet been carried out, as a Bafin spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday on request.