Shunfeng Photovoltaic, the owner of module maker Suntech, has purchased insolvent German project developer SAG Solarstrom for €65 million (US$85.4million).
Shunfeng, through the German subsidiary of Suntech, will acquire all of Solarstrom’s assets. The company had been looking for new investment after a number of delayed project payments forced it to begin insolvency proceedings at the end of 2013.
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“It was our goal to find a strong international partner to take over the group with all its business areas, with whom we would be able to continue to expand our offer along the entire photovoltaic value-added chain and implement our plans for growth,” said Dr. Karl Kuhlmann, CEO, SAG. Solarstrom. “And we have succeeded. For the new company, we envisage substantial growth prospects, both in the European and in the international market, and very much look forward to our further collaboration,” he added.
Shunfeng had said in June that it was in advanced talks with a European developer. SAG Solarstrom refused to comment when asked about a possible investment from Shunfeng.
“The SAG Solarstrom group is a perfect fit for our downstream portfolio and will strengthen our European presence in the photovoltaic market,” said Eric Luo, CEO, Suntech. “The group has very good access to markets and in particular, many years of experience in the implementation of international photovoltaic projects. The SAG subsidiary meteocontrol is also a world market leader in the professional monitoring of photovoltaic systems and therefore not just a very interesting extension to our own system portfolio,” he said.
Shunfeng will bundle the rest of its European operations into the new look Solarstrom. Kuhlmann said he expected the company to restart international project development in 2015.
SAG Solarstrom currently operates 116 PV power plants in Europe, with a total output of 26.5MWp. Meteocontrol, a 100% subsidiary of SAG Solarstrom is said to monitor over 35,000 solar systems around the world with a total output of over 8.8GWp.
