Monday, April 2, 2007

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic picks up 40% stake in Slovenia solar company Solarvalue for $10 mn; Warburg Pincus ups stake in Moser Baer

Moser Baer India, through group company Moser Baer Photo Voltaic has acquired 40% stake in Slovenia-based Solarvalue Proizvodnja. Moser Baer would acquire the stake from Germany-based Solarvalue AG, which currently holds 100% stake in the Slovenian company. Solarvalue Proizvodnja is involved in solar silicon production. The total value of investment stands at $10 mn, of which $6 mn is the initial commitment and the balance investment, is based on certain milestones.

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic is in the process of setting up a photo voltaic cell and module manufacturing project with an 80 MW capacity in India’s first renewable energy SEZ at Greater Noida. It has already concluded trials for 40 MW capacity and hopes to commission another 40 MW by the second half of next fiscal. Solarvalue plans to set up a capacity of over 4000 tonnes of solar grade silicon by end of 2008. With the acquisition Moser Baer Photo Voltaic now has a supply agreement for 40% of the output of the solar grid poly-silicon project.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

In a related development, affiliates of private equity investor Warburg Pincus have hiked their stake in Moser Baer to 33.75% through conversion of 47,500 Global Depository Receipts (GDRs). Woodgreen Investment, Bloom Investments, Ealing Investments, Randall Investments and Elm International – all affiliates of Warburg Pincus – have acquired an additional 4.26% stake in Moser Baer. Each GDR represented 100 underlying equity shares, leading to 4.75 mn equity shares. From around 329 mn shares representing 29.49% stake earlier, Warburg Pincus affiliates now holds approximately 376 mn shares.

More in The Economic Times article.

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