News Article
Are First Solar Planning More Acquisitions?
Solar panel manufacturer and EPC, First Solar, Inc. have announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 8,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $46.00 per share. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on June 18, 2013, subject to customary closing conditions. The offering could net more than $400 million at its current stock price.
First Solar have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,275,000 shares of common stock. First Solar intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions of under development photovoltaic solar power system projects, investments in photovoltaic solar power system projects that will be jointly developed with strategic partners and capital expenditures or strategic investments to develop certain business units and expand in new geographies.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Credit Suisse, HSBC, Credit Agricole CIB and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are also acting as book-running managers for the offering. Lazard Frères & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to First Solar.
The shares are being offered pursuant to a shelf registration statement previously filed with and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on June 11, 2013. A preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering have been filed with the SEC and are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.
First Solar recently acquired a small solar company, TetraSun. The fourteen-person startup developed a silicon cell architecture able to hit 21 percent efficiency at low cost, according to claims. TetraSun had raised $12 million from equity investors and strategic customers including JX Nippon. CEO De Ceuster was at SunPower for ten years prior to joining TetraSun in 2009.
