SunEdison records big Q1 net loss, announces new energy portfolio acquisition

Share

In the first three months of 2015, SunEdison saw its net loss slide from $288 million in Q4 2014, to $424 million. While significant, it was still up on Q1 2014, which recorded a net loss of $616 million.

Meanwhile, the company’s net sales dropped both quarterly and annually, from $406 million in Q4 2014 and $340 million in Q1 2014, to $323 million. At $34 million, gross profit also declined, from $58 million last quarter, and $38 million last year. Gross margin, at 11% showed no change from Q1 2014, but fell from the 14% recorded in Q4.

On a more positive note, SunEdison did record a Q1 PV module shipment record of 273 MW, up from 150 MW in Q1 2014. The figure was down on the 383 MW shipped in Q4, however. In the second quarter of the year, it expects to ship between 300 to 340 MW, and, for the FY, 2.1 to 2.3 GW.

Another three records were set in terms of backlog additions net of losses (2.9 GW), gross pipeline additions (2.7 GW) and projects under construction at quarter end (774 MW).

As of December 31, 2014, SunEdison had interconnected over 974 solar power systems totaling 2.35 GW. It also had 467 MW of projects under construction, and 5.1 GW in the pipeline. Its projects are located in Chile, India, Honduras, the U.K. and the U.S.

Portfolio acquisition

Continuing on its path of renewable energy domination, SunEdison announced it had acquired five RE portfolios and two corporate platforms in Brazil, China, India, Peru, Chile, South Africa, and Uruguay, which will presumably be a spinoff to its emerging markets yieldco subsidiary, TerraForm Global, Inc.

It has been reported, also today, that TerraForm Global is planning an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The company has publicly filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined," said the company in a separate statement released.

Under the latest deal, SunEdison has acquired 757 MW worth of operating solar, wind and hydropower projects, including a 23.1 MW solar project in India from Chint Solar (Zhejang) Co. Ltd; and 1.92 GW of Third Party Right or First Offer projects. Other solar acquisitions include two operational 7.5 MW solar power plants in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and a 26 MW solar power project under construction in Uruguay.

To fund its expansion, an unnamed company subsidiary has received an investment of $175 million from Blackstone Group, Everstream Opportunities Fund II and Altai Capital Management. Meanwhile, SunEdison has signed a $362 million non-recourse acquisition facility for its emerging market initiatives with JPMorgan Chase Bank, Barclays, Citi and Morgan Stanley.

Earlier in the day it was reported that SunEdison had been awarded a contract to develop an 86 MW photovoltaic plant in South Africa's Northern Cape Province.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.