The “start of a ‘new’ Conergy” has been heralded by the company as Kawa Capital Management finalised its acquisition of the global Conergy sales and service units.
The transaction marks the final step in a process which since August this year has seen Kawa purchase all of Conergy’s sales and service units and allow Conergy to continue operating in its existing European, US and emerging Asian markets.
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Talks for the company's two manufacturing units are ongoing.
The deal with Kawa has also helped to secure 350 jobs at Conergy. In addition, changes have been made on the boards of both companies. With Kawa’s backing, Conergy will now begin to offer financial capital solutions to clients in the solar market as an additional service.
Conergy is now effectively a subsidiary of Kawa, with two German sales and service units (Conergy Deutschland and Conergy Service) and Conergy subsidiaries in Great Britain, Italy and Australia transferred over to the newly formed Kawa Solar Holdings, along with sales entities in the US, Canada, Singapore and Thailand, which were already bought in August.
According to a statement announcing news of the close of sale, Conergy will remain mostly involved in the rooftop market in Europe for private and commercial buildings, whereas in Asia-Pacific the main focus of the company will be to execute project development, design and engineering of turnkey large scale PV projects as well as offering maintenance and plant management and the new line of financing capital solutions.
Negotiations regarding the sale of Conergy’s module and mounting systems manufacturing divisions are currently ongoing. Conergy spokeswoman Antje Stefan confirmed to PV Tech that agreements for both are expected to be reached by the end of November or early December at the latest. According to Stefan, there are seven potential investors from Europe and Asia negotiating with Conergy over Conergy Solarmodule and investors from Europe and the USA negotiating over the other subsidiary division, Mounting Systems.
In news announced to accompany the sale to Kawa, Conergy chief executive officer Dr Philip Comberg will leave the Conergy management board and his role, to join the board of directors at Kawa on 1 January 2014. Kawa director Andrew de Pass said: “I particularly would like to thank Dr. Philip Comberg for his excellent achievements as CEO of Conergy. He navigated Conergy through very difficult times. Moreover, he was the driver of the transaction that we successfully closed now, whereby Conergy is one of the few German solar companies to emerge from insolvency in such a strong position. I am very happy to closely work with Philip in the future on the Board of Directors.”
Kawa made a raft of other changes to Conergy management, with Conergy chief operating officer Alexander Gorski adding the position of chief executive officer for Europe to his existing responsibilities, while President of Conergy Americas Anthony Fotopoulos moved up to the role of CEO for Americas. From within Kawa’s management team Lando Kravetz moved to become Conergy’s global head of business development and strategy.
Dr Philip Comberg said: “Today was the start of a ‘new’ Conergy. I am very proud that together with Kawa and my colleagues in the Management Board we have created the base for a successful future of the company.”
