ISOFOTON to invest 300 million euros in Q-Cells

Bid to be presented to creditors' committee this coming Wednesday.

Madrid, 28 August 2012 [WorldOfPhotovoltaics.com] – If Spanish bidder Isofotón acquires jointly with Rocket Venture Fund the insolvent German photovoltaic company Q-Cells, it plans to invest some 300 million euros in the firm. Of that amount, 100 million euros will be used at its headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen to promote production of its highest-performance solar cells; another 200 million euros will go into its plant in Malaysia. Isofotón’s bid also provides for an advance payment of 30 million euros to the company’s debt investors in order to pay back 100 percent of their investment. In addition, Isofotón and its partners, including Samsung, intend to bring the firm 40 million euros and projects with a volume of 1500 megawatts.

Isofotón was approved to bid after a meeting between the company’s executive board and Q-Cells’ insolvency administrator. Angel Luis Serrano, the president of the company, will present his bid to the creditors’ committee this Wednesday, 29 August. Isofotón did not make its offer public until last weekend, but has been involved in the sale process since Q-Cells became insolvent.

After the acquisition, Isofotón will cut ten percent of Q-Cells’ workforce of about 1300. No jobs will be relocated. Both research and development and production will continue at Q-Cells’ headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen and in Malaysia. Isofotón believes that it will be particularly advantageous for the company to be able to operate in Spain and the USA as well as Germany and Malaysia after the acquisition. This would enable the company to operate near its end customers, Serrano says.

Isofotón is a leading European firm in the solar energy sector with the objective of building a large industry group in Europe. The company operates in more than 60 countries around the world in both development and production. Isofotón has strategic partnerships with the Korean industrial concern Samsung as well as with Posco and Sumitomo, among others. Isofotón will lodge its bid for Q-Cells together with a US fund. Isofotón is not providing any information about the amount of the bid at this time.

In view of the growing demand for energy in Latin America, Asia and the USA, Isofotón plans to increase production to 1500 MW in the next two years. To this end, the firm is building a new plant in Ohio, USA, which is scheduled to go on line in November 2012.

Isofotón has completed more than 1000 projects all over the world to date. For thirty years, the firm has considered itself a pioneer in the photovoltaic industry. Isofotón believes that Q-Cells could prove to be an ideal addition to its portfolio.

Rocket Venture Fund is an investment fund associated to University of Toledo (Ohio, US) where ISOFOTON will open a new production factory in November. This University is a pioneer and a key player on the development of photovoltaic industry in the United States. Around 6000 people and over a hundred companies in Ohio are working in solar with a third of those companies located around University of Toledo (UT) and many incubated by UT