Bluestar may merge REC Solar with asset
Print Edition
CHINA National Bluestar has agreed to buy solar panel maker REC Solar for 4.34 billion Norwegian crowns (US$640 million), planning to combine it with another Norwegian asset it picked up in 2011.
Bluestar yesterday said it would pay a 15.9 percent premium to the stock’s last close in a deal unanimously recommended by REC Solar’s board of directors and would combine it with its solar grade silicon maker Elkem.
The deal comes nearly a year and a half after REC spun off its solar panel arm, moving its headquarters to Singapore from Norway and effectively putting the company up for sale.
Struggling with high costs and cut price competition from China, REC Solar moved its production from Norway, one of the most expensive countries in the world, and set up its operating headquarters in Singapore.
REC Solar has continued to struggle with weak markets and poor margins this year and its third-quarter sales and profit both shrank from the previous quarter as solar panel prices fell by nearly 5 percent on the quarter.
In 2011, Bluestar bought Norway’s Elkem for US$2 billion in one of the biggest industrial takeovers by a Chinese group in Europe.
“The Elkem Group has a strategic goal to grow its presence in the solar industry,” Elkem CEO Helge Aasen said in a statement. “The ambition is to establish a leading integrated photovoltaic system player.”
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