Canadian Solar subsidiary gets approval for STAR Market IPO

Source: Shanghai Stock Exchange

CSI Solar Co Ltd, a majority-owned unit of Canadian Solar Inc (NASDAQ:CSIQ), has obtained clearance for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The stock listing committee of the so-called STAR Market determined on December 13 that CSI Solar had met the offering, listing and disclosure requirements related to its proposed listing, Canadian Solar said in a press statement. Now, the subsidiary will have to go through the registration process with the China Securities Regulatory Commission before it can complete the listing procedure.

Canadian Solar first unveiled its intention to pursue an IPO for solar module manufacturing and total system solutions provider CSI Solar in late June just as peer JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd (NYSE:JKS) did the same for one of its own subsidiaries.

"The listing will provide us another platform to raise growth capital and solidify our industry-leading module brand and manufacturing business,” chairman and CEO Shawn Qu said on Monday.

CSI Solar is one of Canadian Solar’s two main businesses. The other is referred to as Global Energy and is focused on the development of solar and battery storage projects in over 20 countries globally. The company said that following CSI Solar’s planned listing, it will continue to be the majority shareholder of that business and the sole owner of Global Energy.

In order to avoid any potential competition between the company and its CSI Solar unit, Canadian Solar is in the process of transferring its China Energy business from CSI Solar to the Global Energy business through a sale. The transaction concerns all of the solar energy project development and ownership activities in China, which includes a total solar project pipeline of 2.3 GWp, with 300 MWp of late-stage assets in backlog and 127 MWp of operating solar power plants.

This sale should be concluded by the end of the year.

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