FOREX Magazine
IBP Finance I
IBP Finance I
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The Latest Solar Company<br />
Taking a Buyout<br />
Don't look now, but the solar industry is slowly<br />
exiting from public markets. Trina Solar and<br />
JA Solar have gone private, and Canadian<br />
Solar's CEO is trying to take his company off<br />
public markets. Now, Hanwha Q Cells is trying<br />
to exit the public market with an $825 million<br />
buyout offer from its parent company,<br />
Hanwha Chemical Corporation, earlier this<br />
week.<br />
If the deal goes through, it would mean that<br />
JinkoSolar will be the last major Chinese solar<br />
manufacturer to be publicly traded in the<br />
U.S. The solar experiment hasn't gone well for<br />
U.S. investors, and now companies are<br />
seeing greener pastures as well.<br />
Reorganizing without the public spotlight<br />
Hanwha Q Cells and other solar<br />
manufacturers may see being private as a<br />
way to slowly improve their business and<br />
return to profitability.<br />
As public companies, there was pressure to<br />
grow, which meant taking on debt to build<br />
manufacturing capacity. That debt is<br />
ultimately what caused the collapse of some<br />
of the industry's biggest manufacturers<br />
(Suntech Power and Yingli Green Energy).<br />
The last company standing<br />
This may be the last hurrah for public solar<br />
companies in the U.S. JinkoSolar is the last<br />
major Chinese manufacturer to remain<br />
public, but it's facing high debt and low<br />
profitability, just like the other companies that<br />
have been taken private.<br />
Chinese solar manufacturers may dominate<br />
the global solar industry, but they've been a<br />
flop as investments in the U.S. It looks like one<br />
by one they're being taken off the market,<br />
leaving fewer options for solar investors.<br />
Maybe that's for the best.<br />
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