GCL New Energy

With the company’s up-for-sale project development business revealing extensive debt concerns yesterday morning, that revelation is only half the story.

The opening pages of the first-half update published on the Hong Kong exchange made all the right noises with the company set to be acquired by a Chinese state-owned entity. But the balance sheet makes for shocking reading.

The heavily indebted poly manufacturer and project developer will receive an immediate $50 million fillip from the sale of an 80 MW solar project but will then have to pay back $76 million over ten years.

The latest stock market update from Hong Kong enables investors with sufficient patience to follow the money merry-go-round at the polysilicon producer.

The poly maker’s project development business has entered a sale and leaseback deal for a 140 MW project that will bring in a financial lift in the short-term but cost more than $31 million over nine years.

With no details reported on the final electricity price agreed for a 500 MW solar project to be built in Oman, speculation will center on whether the victorious Saudi power company and its Kuwaiti partners have again trumped lower offers from overseas rivals.

With a RMB21.4 billion chunk of its huge debt pile reportedly set to fall due for repayment in July, ownership of four PV projects with a total 80 MW capacity is due to transfer back and forth as the developer tries to sweat its solar assets.

Chief executive of Norwegian developer tells markets his company will deliver on 1.5 GW promise by the end of the year – by including any projects it has broken ground on.

GCL New Energy will likely post a profit of CNY 450 million ($67.4 million) in the first half of 2017, from a profit  of just CNY 147 million a year earlier, as it connected 1.04 GW of new solar capacity to the grid.

Group unit Suzhou GCL Operation has agreed to provide operation and management services for 353 MW of solar capacity owned by PV investor Suzhou GCL-Poly throughout China.