Chinese solar cell and module maker Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP) owed nine banks a total of CNY 7.1 billion.
It released financial forecasts for the fourth quarter of 2012 on May 2 and according to the forecasts, the shipment dropped about four percent from a quarter ago. The sales fell about eight percent from a quarter earlier to USD 358 million. And of the total, about 91 percent was from photovoltaic modules and nine percent was from other products including photovoltaic systems, cells, silicon chips and photovoltaic equipment. The gross margin was about 0.4 percent.
It also unveiled financial forecasts for the fiscal year 2012 on the day and according to the forecasts, the shipment was 1.8 GW. The sales reached about USD 1.63 billion, diving 48 percent from a year ago. And of the total, about 92 percent was from photovoltaic modules and eight percent was from other products including photovoltaic systems, cells, silicon chips and photovoltaic equipment.
An analyst with Solarbuzz pointed out that its shipment last year was better than market expectations and that of photovoltaic modules could edge into the top two globally. However, judging from the about 0.4 percent gross margin, it still suffered a loss-making operation in the fourth quarter of the year. And the full-year performance was expected to be worse. It triggered a bankruptcy restructuring this March, thus the shipment last year was not impacted.
Jin Wei, CEO of it, said that it was implementing a series of restructuring measures, an effort to reduce cost, raise operating efficiency, and improve balance sheet and had made some progresses. In the meantime, it assessed the measures in a bid to project right and interest of related parties. In addition, its production would continue.
It formally triggered a bankruptcy restructuring on March 20 and according to a verdict made on the bankruptcy, the outstanding of loans it gained from nine banks, including eight Chinese ones and one foreign one, in both renminbi and foreign currencies hit CNY 7.1 billion as at the end of February this year. And among the nine, Bank of China (BOC, SEHK: 3988 and SHSE: 601988) was the biggest creditor and in detail, together with China Development Bank (CDB), it provided a five-year USD 198.5 million credit line to the Wuxi-based firm in 2009. In the following year, it provided a long-term CNY 358 million credit line to the latter for fixed-asset acquisitions. And in 2011, it provided a CNY 2.75 billion credit line to the latter and the term was one and a half years.
