China Sunergy has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of two related module manufacturers, CEEG (Shanghai) Solar Science & Technology and CEEG (Nan Jing) New Energy.
“These acquisitions enhance China Sunergy’s position in the downstream photovoltaic market and advance our initiative of developing into a comprehensive solution provider and providing value-added services to customers,” said Lu Tingxiu, chairman of China Sunergy. “We look forward to realizing these strategies by bringing polycrystalline module manufacturing in-house and strengthening our competitive advantages within the solar sector.”
“Being vertically integrated will help to stabilize and increase margins in a possibly volatile environment, while representing a transformation towards a solution provider. We are reshaping the company from a single dimension manufacturing-oriented business into a platform with two pillars: technological innovation and a closer distribution channel to end customers. This acquisition will also positively impact China Sunergy’s customer composition, as we can further focus on providing value-added services to system installers and integrators.”
The acquisitions are estimated to cost the company US$47 million, payable by China Sunergy to China Electric Equipment and Sundex Holdings in a series of installments. The transactions have been reviewed and approved by all three companies’ boards of directors.
The combined acquisitions have a total annual production capacity of 150MW and 70MW, respectively, with capacity forecasted to be 300MW and 170MW by the middle of the year.