Local thin-film solar cell module maker Sunner Solar Corp (旭能光電) and the Anneberg Group (安那柏格), which operates Xantia Art Cosmetics in the US, yesterday announced plans to merge in a bid to improve cash flow and increase profits.
Under the merger terms, Sunner Solar will issue 84.5 million new common shares and sell them to Anneberg.
The new entity, to be called Xantia Co Ltd (桑緹亞), would have capital of NT$2.045 billion (US$67 million) and would be 60 percent owned by Sunner Solar and 40 percent by Anneberg, the companies said.
The planned merger needs to obtain approval from their respective shareholders on April 3 and is scheduled for completion sometime in the second quarter of this year, the companies said.
After the merger, solar cell modules is set to be one of the six divisions under Xantia, with the other five divisions dedicated to biotech products, they said.
Anneberg Group chief executive officer David Chiang (江漢彰) is to serve as Xantia’s new CEO.
Chiang, one of the original shareholders of Sunner Solar, said he believes the solar cell business will be profitable in the long run.
The new company plans to expand its sales of cosmetics products into China and utilize solar cell technology to produce devices such as mobile power products, to broaden its customer base, Chiang said.
Currently the company is negotiating with a sports brand to launch mobile power products by the second half of next year, Chiang said.
Chiang said the annual revenue of Anneberg Group is between NT$2.5 billion and NT$3 billion, while the net profit margin is approximately 10 percent.
Sunner Solar last year reported losses of NT$1.21 billion.
“We suffered greatly from reduced government subsidies and we were not very successful in entering the Chinese market,” Sunner Solar chairman Huang Chih-wen (黃志文) said.
The companies yesterday also confirmed the intention of Winston Wong (王文洋), a son of Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團) founder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), to invest in the company.
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