Aeris Energy (B3: AERI3), Brazil’s largest wind-turbine blade manufacturer, reported a Q1 2026 net loss of R$138 million (US$27 million at R$5.05) — a 40 percent worsening from the R$98.4 million loss in Q1 2025, according to the earnings release published Tuesday May 12.
The sequential picture is more encouraging. The Q1 loss narrowed by R$339.4 million or 71 percent against Q4 2025’s R$477.5 million loss — a quarter that had included a large one-off impairment. The trajectory shows Aeris is climbing out of the worst of the crisis but is still far from break-even.
Net operating revenue fell 49.8 percent year-on-year to R$105.6 million, from R$210.4 million in Q1 2025. The 7.8 percent sequential decline against Q4 2025’s R$114.5 million confirms the multi-quarter retraction trajectory CEO Alexandre Negrão has attributed to the domestic demand collapse.
Adjusted EBITDA was negative R$27.5 million in Q1 2026, reversing the positive R$5.58 million posted a year earlier. The EBITDA margin was negative 26.0 percent, a 28.7 percentage-point deterioration year-on-year, but a 26.9 percentage-point improvement on the negative 52.9 percent margin of Q4 2025.
Key Points
What Aeris Reported in Q1 2026
Aeris Indústria e Comércio de Equipamentos para Geração de Energia S.A. — listed on B3 as AERI3 — is Brazil’s largest wind-turbine blade manufacturer, headquartered at the Complexo Industrial e Portuário do Pecém in Ceará. The company supplies blades to global wind-turbine OEMs including Vestas and previously Siemens Gamesa, and has been one of the publicly traded proxies for the Brazilian wind-energy investment cycle since its 2020 IPO.
Q1 2026 net loss of R$138 million worsened 40 percent versus the R$98.4 million loss in Q1 2025. The headline year-on-year deterioration sits alongside a 71 percent sequential improvement versus the R$477.5 million loss reported in Q4 2025, which had included a R$233.9 million asset impairment charge. Stripping that one-off, the underlying trajectory is closer to flat sequentially.
Net operating revenue was R$105.6 million, down 49.8 percent year-on-year from R$210.4 million. The 7.8 percent sequential decline versus Q4 2025’s R$114.5 million confirms the multi-quarter retraction trajectory. Aeris attributed the decline to lower domestic-market activity and the absence of new relevant contracts during the period.
“This performance is part of a retraction movement observed across the last quarters, reflecting principally the lower level of activity in the domestic market,” the company said in its filing. “The continuation of a more cautious domestic environment, combined with the absence of relevant new contracts, resulted in lower volumes destined for that market.”
Adjusted EBITDA was negative R$27.5 million, reversing positive R$5.58 million in Q1 2025. The EBITDA margin came in at negative 26.0 percent — a 28.7 percentage-point year-on-year deterioration but a 26.9 percentage-point sequential improvement against Q4’s negative 52.9 percent margin. CEO Alexandre Negrão attributed the still-pressured EBITDA to low capacity utilisation and the inability to dilute fixed costs at the Pecém manufacturing complex.
Operating expenses totalled R$36.5 million in the quarter, R$24 million below Q4 2025 levels and R$8.2 million below Q1 2025 (excluding the one-off impairment effect from the prior quarter). The expense reduction reflects the cost-discipline programme Aeris has been executing across 2025-2026, including the dismantling of four production lines and earlier workforce reductions of approximately 1,500 employees.
Net debt was R$1.864 billion at end-Q1, up 4.2 percent or R$75 million from R$1.789 billion at end-2025. The increase came despite the company’s deleveraging objectives, reflecting cash burn through the operating-loss period combined with the higher financial-expense burden of the elevated Selic environment.
Net financial expenses totalled R$96 million in Q1, up 24.1 percent year-on-year and 11.4 percent sequentially. The company attributed the increase principally to higher interest rates and charges related to financial operations, loans and financings. The 15 percent Selic policy rate is the structural overhang.
The leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA) was not disclosed. Aeris had eliminated the obligation to monitor the leverage covenant in its Q1 2025 debt renegotiation, when 90 percent of the company’s approximately R$1.7 billion debt stack was restructured with extended maturities. The exclusion of the leverage indicator from covenants was a critical concession that has kept the company technically compliant despite operational losses.
The 2026 outlook references the company’s exports growth — a strategic pivot Negrão has emphasised since 2024. Exports to the United States and Latin America had reached R$67.2 million in Q4 2024, growing 1,235 percent year-on-year and representing 31.8 percent of revenue in that quarter. The export channel is the principal mechanism the company is using to fill capacity-utilisation gaps left by domestic demand collapse.
Why Aeris Q1 Matters
Aeris is the listed proxy for Brazil’s wind-energy industrial crisis. The company’s revenue trajectory — halved year-on-year — is the most visible financial expression of a structural shift that has gripped Brazil’s wind sector since 2023, when grid curtailment and rising costs of capital began destroying the project pipeline that had supported manufacturing capacity at Pecém.
As the Rio Times reported in April 2025, Brazil’s wind energy industry now faces its most severe and prolonged crisis. National Electric System Operator (ONS) curtailments forced wind plants to reduce output by approximately 10 percent in 2024, costing the sector R$1.6 billion in lost revenue. Wind producers had absorbed roughly R$5.0 billion in forced reductions since 2023.
The mechanism is industrial chain failure. When wind farm operators cannot sell their generated energy because the grid forces curtailment, they cannot fund new project investment. When project investment slows, OEMs like Vestas have no demand for new turbines. When OEMs have no demand for turbines, blade manufacturers like Aeris have no demand for blades — and Aeris’s Pecém facility, designed for high-volume production runs, suffers severe fixed-cost dilution as capacity utilisation collapses.
The competitive intensification from solar adds to the pressure. As the Rio Times noted in June 2025, Brazilian wind energy companies cut 11,000 jobs in 2024 alone, with Aeris and GE Vernova among the major manufacturers closing factories or laying off workers. The number of new wind farm projects fell from 123 in 2023 to 76 in 2024, while distributed solar generation surpassed wind capacity at 36 GW versus 33 GW respectively by end-2024.
Regulatory issues compound the structural shift. As the Rio Times reported in October 2025 after Brazil’s high-voltage blackout, ONS warned curtailment could reach 40,000 MW by 2029 and affect up to 84 percent of midday hours. Wind producers receive only about 3 percent of their curtailment losses in compensation, while fossil-fuel plants still receive full pay — a regulatory asymmetry that has discouraged new wind investment.
CEO Alexandre Negrão has been publicly cautious about a near-term recovery. In the FY2025 results commentary, he projected market normalisation only in 2027, with average installations of 2.5 to 3 GW per year — significantly below the 4-5 GW annual peaks reached at the height of the 2010-2022 expansion cycle. The implication: Aeris is building a capacity strategy for a structurally smaller domestic addressable market.
The Vestas 1.3 GW blade contract, signed during 2025, is the most concrete medium-term order-book commitment Aeris has secured. The Vestas relationship has been the cornerstone of Aeris’s export pivot, since Vestas exports turbines from Brazil to other Latin American markets and to the United States. The contract provides production-line visibility that justifies maintaining the Pecém footprint rather than additional plant closures.
The 90 percent debt restructuring completed in Q1 2025 is the survival mechanism. With extended maturities and — critically — the elimination of the leverage covenant indicator, Aeris bought time to navigate the downcycle without being forced into emergency capital raises or asset disposals at distressed valuations. The trade-off is rising financial expenses (R$96 million in Q1) as the restructured debt carries elevated coupon rates.
The export channel is the strategic priority. Q4 2024 exports of R$67.2 million represented 31.8 percent of revenue — the highest export share in the company’s listed history. Negrão has emphasised the US and Latin American markets as the principal growth channels, though European competitiveness is constrained by transport logistics, since blade transport is cost-prohibitive for trans-Atlantic shipments.
For the wind sector overall, government intervention is the most likely catalyst. Industry association Abeeólica has been pushing for export incentives for domestic equipment manufacturers, fair curtailment compensation, and clearer rules on contract treatment. Provisional Measure 1304 from late 2025 began addressing curtailment compensation mechanisms, but full implementation will take quarters to feed through to project investment decisions.
For investors in AERI3 specifically, the Q1 print confirms the multi-quarter trough but offers limited evidence of acceleration. The sequential improvement is mechanical — driven primarily by the absence of the Q4 impairment — rather than operational. A clear inflection requires either a domestic wind-project investment recovery or a step-change in export contract volumes — neither of which Negrão’s 2027 timeline suggests is imminent.
Aeris Q1 2026 Financial Snapshot
| Indicator | Q1 2026 | Chg YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Net Loss | -R$138M (US$27M) | -40% (worse) |
| Net Operating Revenue | R$105.6M | -49.8% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | -R$27.5M | vs +R$5.58M |
| EBITDA Margin | -26.0% | -28.7 pp YoY |
| Net Financial Expenses | R$96M | +24.1% YoY |
| Operating Expenses | R$36.5M | -R$8.2M vs ex-impair |
Balance Sheet and Sequential Comparison
| Metric | Q1 2026 | Chg QoQ (vs Q4 25) |
|---|---|---|
| Net Loss | -R$138M | +71% (Q4: -R$477.5M) |
| Revenue | R$105.6M | -7.8% (Q4: R$114.5M) |
| Adjusted EBITDA Margin | -26.0% | +26.9 pp (Q4: -52.9%) |
| Net Debt | R$1.864B | +4.2% (vs R$1.789B) |
| Operating Expenses | R$36.5M | -R$24M |
| Financial Expenses | R$96M | +11.4% |
What Happens Next for Aeris
Vestas 1.3 GW execution: The signed Vestas blade contract is the largest contracted order in the medium-term pipeline. Watch for delivery scheduling through 2026 and into 2027 — production-line ramp-up should lift capacity utilisation and gradually improve fixed-cost dilution at Pecém.
Export channel growth: The US and Latin American export trajectory needs to continue offsetting domestic-demand weakness. The Q4 2024 31.8 percent revenue share from exports is the structural target; watch quarterly export disclosures.
Regulatory catalysts: Brazil’s curtailment compensation framework is in active reform. Any clearer rules on wind project compensation would lift the domestic project pipeline and indirectly support blade demand. The wind industry continues to lobby for the same compensation treatment as fossil-fuel plants.
Cash burn watch: Net debt rising R$75M in a single quarter is the most concerning trend. Without revenue recovery, the company will continue burning cash even with operating-expense discipline. The 90 percent debt restructuring and covenant exclusion provide time, not a permanent solution.
2027 recovery thesis: Negrão’s 2.5-3 GW/year recovery scenario is the structural reset target. Investors should calibrate AERI3 expectations to a smaller domestic addressable market than the 2010-2022 cycle peaks, with US/LatAm exports providing the marginal upside.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Aeris lose in Q1 2026?
Aeris Energy reported a net loss of R$138 million in Q1 2026, a 40 percent worsening from the R$98.4 million loss in Q1 2025. Net operating revenue fell 49.8 percent year-on-year to R$105.6 million, with adjusted EBITDA flipping to negative R$27.5 million from positive R$5.58 million in Q1 2025.
The sequential picture is more encouraging: the Q1 loss narrowed by 71 percent versus Q4 2025’s R$477.5 million loss, which had included a R$233.9 million asset impairment charge. The EBITDA margin improved 26.9 percentage points sequentially to negative 26.0 percent from negative 52.9 percent in Q4.
Why is Aeris losing money?
CEO Alexandre Negrão attributes the losses to low capacity utilisation at the Pecém manufacturing complex and the inability to dilute fixed costs over a smaller production volume. The underlying cause is the multi-year collapse in Brazilian wind-energy project investment, which has eliminated demand for new wind turbines and consequently for the blades Aeris produces.
Brazil’s wind sector has lost approximately R$5.0 billion in revenue from grid-curtailment forced reductions since 2023. Wind project investment fell from 123 new farms in 2023 to 76 in 2024. The industry’s overall struggle has cut 11,000 jobs and forced Aeris and competitors like GE Vernova to dismantle production lines and lay off workers.
When will Aeris return to profitability?
CEO Negrão has publicly projected that the Brazilian wind market will normalise around 2027 at average installations of 2.5 to 3 GW per year — significantly below the 4-5 GW peaks reached at the height of the 2010-2022 expansion cycle. The implication is that Aeris is building a capacity strategy for a structurally smaller domestic market.
The 1.3 GW Vestas blade contract signed in 2025 provides medium-term order-book visibility. Export channel growth — Q4 2024 exports totalled R$67.2 million or 31.8 percent of revenue — is the principal lever for improving capacity utilisation faster than the domestic-market recovery timeline. Operating profitability could return earlier than 2027 if exports continue scaling, but a clear inflection point is not yet visible in the quarterly print.
Is Aeris’s debt level sustainable?
Net debt closed Q1 2026 at R$1.864 billion, up 4.2 percent from R$1.789 billion at end-2025. Net financial expenses totalled R$96 million in the quarter (+24.1% YoY), driven by Brazil’s 15 percent Selic rate and elevated charges on restructured debt. Net debt is rising, not falling — a concerning trend without revenue recovery.
The company completed restructuring of approximately 90 percent of its R$1.7 billion debt stack in Q1 2025, with extended maturities and the elimination of the leverage covenant indicator. The covenant exclusion provides important breathing room: Aeris cannot trigger a technical default on the leverage ratio. However, the structure provides time, not a permanent solution — sustained operating losses will continue to compound cash burn unless revenue recovers.
Updated: 2026-05-13T07:30:00-03:00 by Rio Times Editorial Desk
Aeris Energy Q1 2026 | AERI3 earnings | Brazil wind energy crisis | Alexandre Negrão | Pecém Ceará | Vestas blade contract | The Rio Times
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