Mystery deepens over management responsible for Solibro insolvency

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In the wake of the insolvency of German thin-film module manufacturer Solibro, pv magazine has examined the official German business registry – the online handelsregister – to attempt to work out who the “Chinese management” referred to in the insolvency announcement are.

According to the register, Beijing-based Jianjiun Liu was appointed MD of Solibro on June 17, 2015, at a time when the Bitterfeld-based manufacturer was owned by Chinese thin-film company Hanergy.

When pv magazine reported in August on rumors Solibro could be heading for insolvency, we agreed to amend our article after Hanergy contacted us to state the Solibro GmbH manufacturing business had ceased to be one of its subsidiaries in December 2015. Hanergy at the time clarified the separate Solibro Hi-Tech GmbH and Solibro Research AB business units remained under its control.

That claim tallied with the appointment of a new company spokesman on December 22, 2015: Taiwan-based Fu-Ruong Lin.

‘Part of the Hanergy group’

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However, pv magazine has found this company presentation, dated June 2016, which describes Solibro GmbH as “A Hanergy company” on every page and describes the manufacturing business as “Part of the Hanergy group” on page 3, distinguishing it from the Solibro Hi-Tech GmbH and Solibro Research AB businesses in the process.

Liu, described as CEO of Solibro GmbH in that presentation, was replaced as boss by Hong Kong-based Kai-Ye Fung on January 24, 2017, according to the business register. pv magazine has approached Hanergy to ask whether she is the same Kai-Ye Fung who describes herself, on her LinkedIn profile, as a senior vice president at Hanergy Holding Group from October 2016 to the present, and as CEO of the “Solibro BU”, with the initialism presumably standing for business unit.

Two days later, according to the register, Lin was back as company representative and replaced Fung as MD on June 20, 2017. At that point, according to the register, Xue Su Li was appointed as an official representative of Solibro GmbH. pv magazine has approached Hanergy to ask if this is Li Xue, one of two sisters of former Hanergy chairman Li Hejun that the shareholder handed over his Hanergy stake to in April because he could no longer manage the day to day running of the company.

The final entry in the business register notes Lin was removed as MD of Solibro GmbH on December 20 last year.

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