Tainergy Tech Co (太極能源科技), aiming to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange this year, plans to sell shares and take up loans to help fund solar cell production lines in China.
The solar-cell maker may sell between 20 million and 30 million shares in an initial public offering this year, president Kevin Hsieh (謝明凱) said in an interview on Wednesday. The company may boost its annual capacity in China’s Kunshan City to 800 megawatts in four years, said Daniel Yang, special assistant to the company chairman.
Tainergy is building plants in China as the government in Beijing offers tax benefits for solar cell production. The company is competing with local rival Motech Industries Inc (茂德) and Sharp Corp of Japan to tap rising demand for renewable energy.
“There are various advantages in setting up plants in China,” Yang said during the interview in Jhongli. “There’re considerations on taxes, and the market there.”
Tainergy will increase its annual capacity in Taiwan to 240 megawatts by the end of the year from 60 megawatts currently, Hsieh said. Total capacity may reach 1 gigawatt in 2014 after the expansion in China, Yang said.
The company may also sell bonds convertible to stocks and borrow from banks after listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange to help fund expansion, Yang said, without giving details. KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) is the lead underwriter of the company’s IPO.
Capacity of solar panels installed in Taiwan this year may reach 100 megawatts to 200 megawatts, compared with about 20 megawatts last year, after lawmakers passed the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例), Hsieh said.
Tainergy expects “a pretty good profit” this year, after a loss last year, on rising output and the improving global economy, Yang said, declining to give estimates. The company, founded in 2007, posted earnings per share of around NT$3 (US$0.09) in 2008, Yang said.
The stock will start trading next Wednesday on the emerging stock market, a preparatory board for Taiwan’s two main bourses, Hsieh said.
China’s National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, approved in December new rules compelling the country’s grid operators to buy power generated from renewable energy sources including solar, wind and geothermal.
China will offer tax breaks, set up a new national renewable energy development fund and issue preferential loans to encourage the growth of renewable energy sources, according to the text of an amendment to China’s renewable energy law.
Taiwan set minimum wholesale prices in December for electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines at levels higher than for power from fossil fuels to spur production of renewable energy.
Lawmakers approved in June the Renewable Energy Development Act, designed to help cut carbon emissions and reduce dependence on fuel imports, Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy said.
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