China's TZS gets clearance to invest in spun-off SunPower business

Chinese silicon wafers supplier Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co Ltd (SHE:002129), or TZS, has obtained the needed regulatory clearances at home to invest in a solar manufacturing operation that will be spun off of SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR).

The US solar modules producer and project developer shared the news today, saying that this marks an important step towards the company’s split into two.

As announced in November 2019, SunPower will separate its international solar cell and panel manufacturing activities into a new company, called Maxeon Solar Technologies, that will be headquartered in Singapore and listed on Nasdaq. SunPower’s long-term partner TZS agreed at the time to make an equity investment of USD 298 million (EUR 274.7m) in Maxeon Solar to help finance the scale-up of Maxeon 5 production capacity.

Now, the investor has received the approval of China's State Administration for Market Regulation to proceed with the transaction.

"Today's announcement puts us one step closer toward creating two independent, pure play, publicly-traded companies," said Tom Werner, president and CEO of SunPower.

The company, which still needs to sign financial facilities for the transaction, expects to finalise the split by mid-2020.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.922)

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