Hamburg  - High costs on Italian and British projects triggered a profits warning Wednesday from wind-turbine builder Nordex and sent the German company's shares plummeting by 16 per cent.

By late afternoon the stock was trading at just 22.77 euros. Nordex said its full-year revenue forecast remained at 1.1 billion euros, but pegged down its 2008 earnings before interest and tax from 77 million to a lower range of 60 to 66 million euros.

It blamed the slide on higher-than-budgeted costs in the second quarter at wind parks it is building in Italy and Britain as well as the cost of efforts to establish Nordex outside Europe.

In Italy, Nordex has erected wind parks on Sicily and Sardinia and last year announced it had won a contract to supply 44 turbines to the Fossa del Lupo wind farm in the southern province of Catanzaro. (dpa)