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Canadian Solar Gets Offer For Privatization From Lions Point

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

pv magazine reports that Canadian Solar might be ready to go private, thanks to a $250 million bid from venture capital firm Lions Point.

If that latter name sounds familiar, it’s because it should be: SolarWakeup brought you the news earlier this year that Lions Point found itself embroiled in the Suniva bankruptcy, as fellow Suniva creditor SQN Financial accused it of trying to sell off parts of Suniva to eliminate the competition. What competition, you ask?

Right. They were arguing that though Suniva had not produced a module in more than a year, Canadian Solar was so worried about them as a competitor that they were trying to completely sabotage the remaining equipment at the plant, thereby keeping SQN from getting its investment in the now-bankrupt solar module manufacturer back.

So now the next plot point has unfolded: Lions Point is trying to take Canadian Solar private to … I don’t know what the SQN Financial lawyers will argue, but you an rest assured they are hovered over their desks right now getting ready for the next filing in the bankruptcy case.

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Still, the offer was made. pv magazine has the details:

In a 13D filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week, New York-based Lion Point Capital — which holds roughly 12.3% of the Chinese-Canadian manufacturer’s shares — said it is willing to offer as much as $250 million to back the privatization bid. Shares of Canadian Solar jumped by more than 11% on Wednesday on the NASDAQ stock exchange in response to the news.

Unclear is exactly how serious the discussion is about going private or what it would mean for those companies currently installing Canadian Solar modules (probably not much for the latter). It will be interesting to see how serious Lions Point is and whether the rumored privatization actually goes through. Stay tuned.

More:

Lion Point Capital offers $250m to support Canadian Solar’s go-private bid

Creditors Spar In Court Over Suniva Solar Cell Production Assets (Full Complaint Attached)

Creditors Spar In Court Over Suniva Solar Cell Production Assets (Full Complaint Attached)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

You had to know Suniva would come to this, right? Nothing – and I mean nothing – has come easy with this company.

First, it filed a trade complaint, only to get bigfooted to almost an afterthought on its own complaint by its “co-petitioner” SolarWorld. Then it won the case, which led to SolarWorld being purchased by competitor SunPower and Suniva to be…sold for parts.

But now that we had finally moved on to the selling off of assets, even THAT can’t go smoothly for the poor bankrupt module manufacturer. Now two of its creditors are fighting over the production equipment, with one accusing the other of being in the pocket of Canadian Solar and trying to kill the competition (ignoring the obvious fact that Suniva hasn’t produced panel in at least two years).

Will those poor Suniva folks ever catch a break?

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SQN Financial, the creditor that once offered to sell out Suniva’s trade case for $55 million to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, has filed a complaint with the bankruptcy court that is overseeing Suniva’s dismantling accusing Lions Point, another Suniva creditor, of trying to force SQN to remove the solar cell production equipment from the company’s former Norcross factory. SQN argues that moving the equipment out of the factory would immediately devalue it (think of the devaluation of driving a new car off the lot) and force SQN to sell the equipment for far less than it is actually worth (in their estimation).

But the most interesting part of the complaint (which you can read below) is the section where SQN explains why IT thinks Lions Point is demanding the equipment be moved. It claims that Lions Point owns a stake in Canadian Solar, a Chinese module manufacturer, that is seven times more valuable than their stake in Suniva. They write in the complaint:

To be sure, according to Lion Point’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), Lion Point owns approximately 1,920,085 shares in Canadian Solar—one of the three largest solar companies in the world by revenue—that are valued at approximately $31,239,000(US) and constitutes Lion Point’s fifth largest equity holding. Lion Point also has an outstanding loan to Canadian Solar of approximately $14,341,000(US). Lion Point’s $45 million investment in Canadian Solar stands in stark contrast to its approximately $6 million investment in the Debtor [Editor’s note: Suniva].

As we said, we’re not sure how they can argue Suniva competes with Canadian Solar, given that Suniva hasn’t produced a module in more than two years. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter – the case continues to drag on, leaving scars on Suniva’s former employees that will never fully heal. And that’s a damn shame.

SQNComplaint

Athens, Ohio, Project Proves Sunshot Works

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sunshot Initiative’s Solar In Your Community Challenge, one coal-country Ohio town is moving toward a community solar installation.

A group called Upgrade Ohio is trying to change the town’s laws in a way that would allow regular citizens – not just wealthy investors – get in on the ground floor of the array.
Despite being in the heart of coal country, the citizens of Athens are excited about the prospect of opening up a new energy future for the poverty-stricken area.

Richland Avenue bridge, spanning portions of Athens, Ohio, with the Western Hills in the background
By OhioOat – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19870392

SolarWakeup’s View: Full disclosure: Athens, Ohio, is home to Ohio University, which both my parents attended and, if it hadn’t been for some health challenges, I would have attended myself.

With those biases in mind, however, I still think it’s hella cool is this story about Upgrade Ohio, a community group trying to change the city’s laws to allow everyday citizens (instead of just wealthy donors) to buy into a community solar project.

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Upgrade Ohio, an energy advocacy group, was funded as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sunshot Initiative’s $5 million Solar In Your Community Challenge and is working to change the energy landscape of the area. And while it is home to Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, is also one of the more bone-deep poverty-stricken areas in the state. Located in the heart of Appalachia, it was solidly coal country – but Upgrade Ohio is in the process of changing that. Said Executive Director Sarah Conley-Ballew to the Energy News Network:

It’s wrong to think that this region has only a coal-country mindset. There is a push to be new energy leaders in new ways. We want to generate our own power because we want to be independent from the extractive powers that have made decisions for this region for so long.

We want to take the coal and gas-dependent economy and make it renewably based. We need a bold and different strategy.

In today’s political climate, it’s easy to forget the vital role the Sunshot Initiative has played in moving solar beyond its traditional strongholds. The Upgrade Ohio project is a good reminder that its future must always be part of any funding conversation (and serve as a reminder, all propaganda to the contrary, that the solar industry supports research in all aspects of the industry, large and small).

More:

In Ohio town, energy ‘locavores’ drive demand for community solar (Energy News Network)

Bonus

This is my ACTUAL alma mater, of which I am SO proud. Marching through Kauke Arch being led by bagpipes on graduation was amazing.

Suniva Being Sold For Parts (Literally), Just Like We Said

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:And now in this corner, from the other end of the Section 201 tariff case, comes the news that Suniva is literally being sold for parts by its creditor SQN Capital Management.:

Who could have seen this coming? (Everyone. Everyone saw this coming.)
SQN Capital Management is the same outfit that famously offered to sell Suniva off to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for a cool $55 million left on a Central Park bench at 3 a.m.
Now they’ve gotten the OK to sell off the manufacturing equipment at a public auction, does anyone really think they’re going to plow the money back into the company to restart production? No. No one does.

From Suniva’s Facebook page, that day they all got into scrubs and delivered a solar panel by hand.

SolarWakeup’s View: Lordy, when it rains it pours.

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This morning I got to write about the end of SolarWorld as an independent company as its assets were purchased by SunPower, which could signal an exit for them from the utility-scale market. Now I have to write about Suniva, the other Keystone Cop in the tariff travesty and the one that started it all.

Unfortunately, on this side of the ledger, there is no feel-good story about saving jobs for the citizens of Hillsboro, Oregon. In this scenario, the company’s major creditor SQN Capital Management – who offered about a year ago to settle the trade case with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for $55 million and a bucket of balls – has now gotten permission from the bankruptcy judge to sell Suniva off for parts, specifically its manufacturing equipment, at a public auction.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if SQN gets the $58 million Suniva owes it out of the equipment sale, it is going to take the money and run. And to say selling the production equipment would make it unlikely Suniva will ever return to production is like calling the Pope Catholic or me a Bernie Kosar fan. In other words, “Duh.”

All of this news today leads me to ponder the following: If one of the trade-tariff companies is being sold and the other is going to disappear into the cornfield, what the hell did we spend the past year fighting for (or against, depending on what side you were on)? Why did we have this extremely long, divisive battle if the two main combatants were going to leave the field early anyway?

One of my friends said it was all for the lawyers; another said it was to pump up SolarWorld’s valuation. Both could be true, I suppose.

All I know is that I have wasted far too much ink and breath on this divisive issue. Maybe this sordid chapter of solar’s history is finally coming to an end (with a whimper, not a bang).

More:

Suniva creditor wins U.S. bankruptcy court approval to sell company’s assets (Reuters)

Could We Finally Be Rid Of Suniva? (SolarWakeup)