Privatization plans for Canadian Solar progress

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In the latest installment of Canadian Solar’s privatization plans, the company has today said that the Special Committee, formed when chief executive, chairman and largest shareholder, Shawn Qu first unveiled his intentions last December, is continuing to assess the proposed transaction.

Specifically, in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it says Qu has engaged financial advisors, and is in discussions with potential equity partners and debt financing sources.

“The Company has entered into confidentiality and standstill agreements with Dr. Qu and several potential equity partners and provided them with access to information about the Company. The Special Committee has given Dr. Qu and the potential equity partners until the end of September to complete their due diligence on the Company,” read the statement.

Last week, shares of Canadian Solar soared after U.S. investment firm, Lion Point Capital said it had initiated discussions with a number of undisclosed third parties about the possibility of funding the privatization.

In a separate filing to the SEC, it said it is willing to offer as much as US$250 million to back the bid, in addition to further funds to drive up the per-share price of the proposal, if necessary.

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In other news, Canadian Solar said it had sold three PV plants totaling 30.4 MWp for JPY 11.5 billion ($103.1 million) to the Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund, Inc. This sale now takes the fund’s PV capacity from 75.2 MWp to 105.6 MWp.

The three projects are located in the Tottori and Gifu Prefectures. They are selling the generated electricity under a 20-year feed-in tariffs worth JPY40/kWh, JPY32/kWh and JPY32/kWh, respectively.

“This is another example of our successful global asset monetization strategy, which is the foundation for building greater value for Canadian Solar and all shareholders … We expect there will be additional mutually beneficial asset drop down opportunities with CSIF in the future,” commented Qu in a statement released.

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