TSi deal to place Motech in top 5 cell makers list

Dec 29, 2014 - Taiwan’s Motech Industries Inc (TPO:6244) will become one of the top five solar cells makers around the world in terms of production capacity once it closes its recently unveiled takeover of a local peer.

On Friday, Motech agreed to acquire Topcell Solar International Co Ltd (TSi) in an all-stock deal worth some TWD 2.05 billion (USD 64.5m/EUR 52.9m), to form a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell maker with a manufacturing capacity of 3 GW.

According to data collected by Trendforce’s EnergyTrend research division, Motech and China’s Trina Solar Ltd (NYSE:TSL) will share the third place in the top cell capacity ranking at the end of 2014. The pair will be behind Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd (NYSE:YGE) with 3.2 GW and Hanwha SolarOne Co Ltd (NASDAQ:HSOL) with 3.28 GW of PV cell manufacturing capacity. The fifth place will be occupied by another Chinese company -- JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd (NASDAQ:JASO), whose cell capacity amounts to 2.8 GW.

The TSi deal will actually make Motech “the world’s largest professional manufacturer of photovoltaic cells” given that vertical integrated Hanwha SolarOne and Yingli are not focused solely on the production of cells. At present, Motech has 1.1 GW of manufacturing capacity in Taiwan and a further 700 MW in China, while its acquisition target has 1.2 GW in Taiwan only. Together, the pair have 450 MW of mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si) and 140 MW of Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC) cell production capacity, while the rest is multi-Si.

EnergyTrend expects that Motech will gradually focus more on mono-Si.

The Motech-TSi merger is expected to close by July 1 next year, subject to regulatory and stockholder clearance.

(TWD 1.0 = USD 0.315/EUR 0.258)

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