16/01/2012 – Total Consolidates Its Activities By Selling Solar Tenesol To Sunpower
The French oil company Total will consolidate its activities in solar energy by increasing in its U.S. subsidiaryin SunPower to 66%, to whom it will sell a French subsidiary, Tenesol.
In a statement on Friday, the solar panel manufacturer SunPower indicates that Total will raise its capital from 60 to 66% in exchange for assignment, for 165.4 million dollars, a company that Total 100% controls, Tenesol.
“SunPower has signed an agreement to acquire Tenesol SA, a global provider of solar energy which headquartered is in La Tour-de-Salvagny” (Rhône, east-central France), announced the U.S. company.
Under the terms of the agreement, SunPower will pay Total $ 165.4 million in cash, and the French energy giant will get in exchange a 18.6 million valued shares from SunPower (8.80 dollars per share) , “a 50% premium over the closing price of Sunpower” Thursday.
“After the sale of Tenesol, Total will own approximately 66% of the shares of SunPower,” they said.
Tenesol has operations in 18 countries and solar plants in France and South Africa.
SunPower, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California (Western U.S.), has operations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
“Combining the activities of Tenesol and Sunpower is a step forward in Total’s strategy of becoming a global player in the promising area of solar energy,” said the president of gas and solar power of the French group, Philippe Boisseau .
Total has taken control of SunPower this summer thanks to a friendly takeover bid of $ 1.38 billion, showing an intention to create a “world leader in solar energy” and the project to accelerate its investment in this area.
“We said that SunPower would be our arm in the sun,” added a spokesman for Total contacted by AFP, adding that “both companies are very complementary,” and that the approximation obeys a “real logical raphical “.
Basma – Green Energy WA News Correspondent – 16/01/2012