Solar cell maker Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光) expects to list a solar power plant operating venture on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of this year at the earliest in a bid to seek new growth amid a volatile time for the industry.
The company is close to wrapping up talks with a US solar power plant operator to invest US$50 million in the venture, which is to operate as a “yield company,” Hsinchu-based Neo Solar said.
A yield company is usually a publicly traded firm that owns assets that generate solar power and produces a steady and predictable profit, the company said.
“We expect the joint venture to help boost the company’s revenue, as we will be the major solar cell supplier to the company,” chief financial officer Thomas Hsu (許嘉成) said by telephone after the company’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu.
Neo Solar’s US partner operates solar power plants with total capacity of about 200 megawatts, Hsu said.
The US company plans to add as much as 500 megawatts in capacity each year over the next five years, which would generate about US$10 million in revenue per year for Neo Solar, Hsu said.
“As the company will operate in the form of a yield company, we expect to make a stable yield of about 6 to 8 percent each year after the company goes public,” Hsu said.
Neo Solar also plans to list its subsidiary, General Energy Solutions Inc (永旺能源), which builds solar power systems, on the nation’s over-the-counter market in the second half of this year.
This year, General Energy expanded its businesses to the Middle East and Latin America after helping customers build solar energy plants in Taiwan, Japan, the US and the UK, Hsu said.
Company chairman Quincy Lin (林坤禧) yesterday told shareholders that he is optimistic about the solar industry this year, as the overall solar power system installation demand would grow by a double-digit percentage, primarily in emerging markets.
Lin expects demand to improve in the second half of the year.
Reflecting Lin’s view, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said high-efficiency solar cell prices stabilized last month and began to rebound this month.
Prices of high-efficiency solar cells are expected to bounce back to between US$0.31 and US$0.33 per watt this month, from last month’s US$0.31, the Taipei-based researcher said.
Neo Solar shareholders approved a cash dividend distribution of NT$0.2 per common share. The company last year made NT$219 million in net profit, or NT$0.28 per share.
Neo Solar was one of the few local solar companies to turn a profit last year amid an industry-wide slump.
Lin attributed the company’s performance to its expansion to solar power plants.
However, the company swung into losses of NT$467 million in the first quarter, affected by weak demand and antidumping tariffs imposed by the US.
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