First Solar not to pursue PV project yieldco

Nov 7, 2014 - US solar module maker and project developer First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) does not plan to separate its solar power plant business into a publicly-traded yieldco vehicle, its chief executive said.

The company’s CEO Jim Hughes said so on a conference call yesterday after First Solar released its third-quarter results. Hughes pointed out that the company will not miss either gross margin or market share capture opportunities just because it has no yieldco unit. First Solar will remain the owner of some of its projects even without such a subsidiary. However, the company may “revisit” the decision in the future, he added.

On Thursday, First Solar said its third-quarter net profit had dropped by 54.7% on the year USD 88.4 million (EUR 71.4m) as revenues declined to USD 889.3 million from USD 1.27 billion. The company trimmed its revenue guidance for 2014 and now expects to revenues of between USD 3.6 billion and USD 3.9 billion, instead of USD 3.7 billion-4 billion.

Several other solar firms have recently spun off their solar assets into yieldco units. Among them are US-based SunEdison (NYSE:SUNE) and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) as well as Spain's Abengoa SA (BME:ABG).

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.808)

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