Taiwanese photovoltaic (PV) cell maker Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光) said its board had agreed to issue up to 120 million new shares in a private placement or in the form of global depositary receipts (GDR) in a bid to raise funds for future capital needs, several company filings showed yesterday.
“The purpose of the capital -increase proposal is to help expand capacity, strengthen working capital and repay bank loans,” Neo Solar said in the filings.
The total amount of the issue, the final sale price per share or per GDR unit, and the identity of the investors in the private placement deal all depend on further internal discussion, company chairman Quincy Lin (林坤禧) said in the filings.
Lin said the proposal would be subject to shareholders’ approval at the company’s annual meeting on April 11 in Hsinchu, when shareholders would also review the management’s financial report for last year and the proposed dividend payment to shareholders.
Neo Solar saw revenue expand 95.6 percent to a record level of NT$20.15 billion (US$684.2 million) last year from a year ago, after the Hsinchu-based company reported on Jan. 3 that last month’s sales rose for a ninth straight month to NT$2.31 billion, up 1.24 percent month-on-month and 122.3 percent year-on-year.
Shares of Neo Solar rose 0.52 percent to NT$77.6 yesterday ahead of news about the fund raising. So far this year the stock has risen 8.99 percent, outperforming an increase of 1.27 percent on the TAIEX, exchange data showed.
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