LDK Solar Co., Ltd. ("LDK Solar") (NYSE: LDK), a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers and PV products, and Solar Power, Inc. (“SPI”) (OTCBB:SOPW), announced that LDK Solar has finalized its acquisition of a 70% interest in SPI for approximately $33 million. LDK paid an initial $10 million in January and today announced it has finalized the transaction with a second payment of $23 million.
The transaction adds significant financial strength to SPI’s balance sheet, enabling the acceleration of the development of its project pipeline, which primarily consists of utility-scale power plants and commercial/industrial distributed generation systems. SPI’s growing development portfolio and pipeline, in turn, should provide LDK Solar with enhanced downstream benefit to its vertical integration model through module supply for large-scale projects.
“We are very pleased to have this transaction concluded,” said Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman and CEO for LDK Solar. “SPI provides a strong strategic complement to our downstream vertical integration opportunities and provides LDK Solar and SPI the opportunity to jointly explore opening manufacturing operations in the U.S. to further enhance SPI’s competitive advantage in North America.”
“We are happy to be part of the growing LDK global team,” said Steve Kircher CEO for SPI. “The strength of our newly combined vertical platform should provide us significant competitive advantages going forward,” Mr. Kircher concluded.
The terms of the investment are more particularly detailed in the Stock Purchase Agreement dated January 5, 2011, as filed in the Company’s report on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 6, 2011.