ET Solar main shareholder files for insolvency

• The move, by Taitong Industry Ltd, will come as a fresh blow to the Chinese module maker, which two times stopped working to go public-- in the U.S. and China-- and whose task development business suffered a damaging in China when Beijing controlled aids in 2018.

The managing investor of Nanjing-based solar module maker and task designer ET Solar has submitted for insolvency in a Chinese court.

Taitong Industry Ltd, which holds a 23.82% stake in ET Solar, requested insolvency in the city of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, in December due to unliquidated debt, pv magazine has actually learned.

The news is the current shock for ET Solar, which in August 2018 had actually revealed a plan to join forces with cash-rich smaller module making competing Tungshu Kangtu, leveraging its money pile while opening its international order book and ability to strike big orders to its partner.

That strategic co-operation had actually come after the ET Solar Inc U.S. module circulation subsidiary of the Chinese producer had applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2017, reporting possessions of less than $50,000 versus financial obligations of $10-50 million. In August, California-based ET Solar Inc announced it had settled its Chapter 11 claims and was reopen for company amid a flourishing U.S. order book, thanks to the aid of new backers.

State-backed investor

Those financiers in the ET Solar U.S. subsidiary were the Yuanfar subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Innovation Group and the Wuxi Bardon Co Chinese solar module production business which it is understood also received support from Yuanfar.

ET Solar got a new 500 MW yearly production capacity cell plant up and running in Vietnam last year and in July also revealed prepare for 300 MW each of cell and module lines in Cambodia. The Cambodia centers were planned to take shape in 2015 as well however it is understood they are now timetabled for operation this year.

Taitong Industry owner Wang Xinghua –-- the reliable controller of ET Solar –-- gave up as chairman of the latter in July, in the wake of the departure of CEO She Haifeng, who jumped ship to Chinese competitor Longi.

History

ET Solar was founded in 2005 and originally focused on module manufacturing. In 2008, the company relied on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services and slowly became the biggest Chinese solar EPC worldwide. In 2012, ET Solar established its U.S. branch and, by the end of 2018, had actually established around 3 GW of solar generation capacity in more than 50 nations.

The company returned to its heartland in 2015 to make use of a flowering domestic market after a not successful IPO attempt in the U.S. Nevertheless, much tighter operating margins in China affected ET Solar’& rsquo; s capital reserves.

In early 2018, ET solar again tried to go public, this time via a backdoor listing in China, however after almost a year the procedure was terminated since of equity pledges which disappointed Chinese listing requirements. At the same time, the abrupt u-turn on public subsidies for solar plants revealed by Beijing at the end of May 2018 hammered ET Solar and a number of its EPC peers.