The largest-ever solar energy deal in Taiwan, the merger of three major solar cell firms, is to be completed on Oct. 1, the firms said after their boards met separately on Friday to approve the agreement.
Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源) is to bring Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源) and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電) under its corporate umbrella through a stock-swap deal, and the new company is to be named United Renewable Energy Co (UREC, 聯合再生).
It is to be the largest solar energy company in the nation.
As Gintech and Solartech are listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, their boards determined that the last trading day for their stocks would be Sept. 17. Neo Solar has not set a timeframe for any change in the trading of its shares.
The three companies announced the merger plan on Oct. 16 last year, saying the new firm would have a capital of NT$21.1 billion (US$687.2 million at the current exchange rate) and would be able to provide one-stop service from solar cell supply to back-end module production, targeting the global market.
The deal was also aimed at reducing the local solar energy sector’s overdependence on the Chinese market.
The National Development Fund in January announced that it would help fund the alliance as part of the government’s efforts to develop sources of renewable energy, while local media reports said the fund is expected to invest up to NT$4.5 and the new company plans to launch a private placement to raise capital by issuing up to 380 million new shares.
The merger was approved by the Fair Trade Commission in April and greenlit by anti-trust regulators in Germany in February and China in March.
UREC is expected to generate about NT$50 billion in sales in its first year of operations and earn NT$90 billion to NT$100 billion in annual revenue within five years, Neo Solar said.
In the first quarter of this year, Neo Solar posted a loss per share of NT$0.63, while Gintech and Solartech reported losses per share of NT$1.07 and NT$0.57 respectively.
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