Sharp Corporation could be preparing to sell on Recurrent Energy, the US PV project developer it acquired in 2010, according to news reports.
Bloomberg claimed to have “obtained” documents that said the Japanese consumer electronics maker had retained Bank of Nova Scotia to assist with the sale. Bloomberg’s initial report from early Monday morning was later updated with a statement from a Miyuki Nakayama, a Sharp spokeswoman based in Japan.
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Nakayama said Sharp was considering all options for Recurrent Energy, including sale, but that no decisions had been taken as of yet. When Sharp completed the purchase of Recurrent Energy for US$305 million cash in September 2010, Recurrent had a 2GW European and North American PV project pipeline. According to the Recurrent Energy website, the pipeline in the US alone now exceeds 3.3GWac or 4.3GWp.
Although Sharp’s PV business returned to profitability in 2013, when the company announced last year’s full results in May, it had warned that it expected a decline in sales and profitability in cell sales in 2014, due in part to a reduction in its overseas project development business, as well as a fall in Japanese residential installations.
The scaling back of Sharp’s solar activities in recent months has included the closing of a UK panel assembly facility. The company also confirmed in July that it would be paying US$141 million to exit its a-Si thin-film joint venture in Europe with Enel. Meanwhile, Sharp launched Smartstorage, an energy storage product for businesses, in the US state of California last month.
