SolarCity's Silevo acquisition triggers solar stock surge

Share

SolarCity's apparent midas touch extended to other solar companies Tuesday – on a leasehold basis, naturally – as news of the company's acquisition of solar panel maker Silevo reverberated positively throughout the stock market.

During stock trading yesterday, SolarCity’s shares soared by 17.5% as investors appeared to universally applaud the company’s bold move to acquire the solar panel company and commit to the construction of a 1 GW manufacturing plant in Buffalo, NY.

But it was not just SolarCity that enjoyed a day in the sun. Stocks for many leading solar panel makers enjoyed a noticeable fillip too, with China’s Yingli Solar enjoying a 12% share increase on the day.

Similarly noteworthy share increases were recorded for Canadian Solar (7.7%), Trina Solar (5.5%), JA Solar (9.6%), ReneSola (8.2%) and JinkoSolar (6.8%). Even the larger American rivals of SolarCity, First Solar and SunPower, enjoyed the ripple-effect of investor confidence, their stock price rising 3.4% and 4.3% respectively.

Speaking to pv magazine yesterday, Smart Solar consulting CEO Götz Fischbeck remarked that SolarCity's bold acquisition was potentially risky, but added that it was generally a good sign that a U.S. company had taken up the baton and was ready to pursue module manufacturing in the country.

Such boldness, particularly in the wake of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) decision earlier in June to slap even higher trade duties on Chinese modules, has evidently curried favor with investors, and did wonders for billionaire and SolarCity co-founder Elon Musk's bank balance – with more than 21 million shares in the company, valued today at approximately $1.36 billion, yesterday was a very good day indeed for the intrepid entrepreneur.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Solarwatt presents new residential battery

22 November 2024 German manufacturer Solarwatt says its new battery can be flexibly configured as an AC or DC system. It also features an emergency power function and...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.