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OKIsItJustMe

(19,933 posts)
Thu Mar 10, 2016, 10:44 AM Mar 2016

Why Solar Giant SunEdison Might Be Doomed

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600999/why-solar-giant-sunedison-might-be-doomed/
[font face=Serif][font size=5]Why Solar Giant SunEdison Might Be Doomed[/font]

[font size=4]Once one of the biggest names in solar, the troubled energy company faces lawsuits, huge debts, and possible bankruptcy.[/font]

by Richard Martin | March 8, 2016

[font size=3]Shares of SunEdison were up more than 10 percent Tuesday after the cancellation of the solar giant’s disastrous acquisition of residential solar developer Vivint. The $2.2 billion deal fell apart after billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper sued to block it—but the real cause was less Tepper’s objections and more SunEdison’s overall financial disarray.

Despite the bump in stock price, the troubled company, based in Saint Peters, Missouri, is far from turning itself around. SunEdison, which has seen $10 billion in market value evaporate over the last year, has been justifiably called “the biggest corporate implosion in U.S. solar history,” as its strategy of acquiring seemingly every solar power company in sight hasn’t panned out. Under CEO Ahmad Chatila, the company has spent billions to acquire solar developers around the world, piling up nearly $12 billion in debt.

The company’s complex financial structure is only making matters worse. In 2014 SunEdison created a pair of “yieldcos”—publicly traded subsidiaries created to own completed solar projects. Yieldcos have become a favored structure for big solar companies because of the tax benefits and cash flow they provide, but at least in SunEdison’s case, Wall Street has soured on the strategy. The crash in its stock left SunEdison unable to shoulder the Vivint purchase or to complete other signed deals.

Now the company almost certainly faces a lawsuit from Vivint. It’s already being sued by Latin America Power, which it agreed to purchase for $733 million, and it faces millions of dollars in penalties for last month’s cancellation of planned solar projects for Hawaiian Electric.

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