Chinese solar developer suspends trading in stock

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Trading in the Hong Kong-listed stock of Chinese PV project developer Shunfeng International has been suspended since Friday morning.

The company on Friday announced the move had been taken pending an announcement related to a big asset disposal.

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Shunfeng, which owes almost US$294 million to creditors in overdue debts and will have to find a further HK$65.6 million (US$8.41 million) within three months, raised RMB14.4 million (US$2.26 million) towards easing that debt burden on Tuesday when it sold off a 50MW solar farm to state-owned entity Anhui Power Wanneng Energy Exchange Co Ltd.

That sale went through despite technical problems at the site amounting to “overheat[ing] of the connector of the combiner box, insufficient thickness of the galvanized bracket, the hot spots identified in certain components through the electroluminescent testing, and soil erosion at the edge of the photovoltaic array,” the developer said.

The project was sold at a discount of RMB1.55 million (US$244,000) agreed between the two parties and Shunfeng added, if the sale had gone through at the end of June, it would have booked a RMB46.8 million (US$7.36 million) loss on the value of the facility.

Explaining the reasons for its latest project sale, Shunfeng said it had a net cash position of RMB6.47 billion (US$1.02 billion) at the end of June, thanks in part to being owed RMB632 million (US$99.4 million) in overdue state subsidies, and had cash at that point of RMB16 million (US$2.52 million) versus borrowings of RMB5.35 billion (US$841 million), convertible bonds commitments of RMB545 million (US$85.7 million) and bonds payable of RMB585 million (US$92 million).

Creditors

Shunfeng has owed True Blue Global Ltd HK$172 million (US$22 million) since November 2019; Sino Alliance HK$351 million (US$45 million) since the end of 2019 and HK$800 million (US$103 million) since the end of 2020; the holders of a corporate bond issued in 2015 RMB330 million (US$51.9 million) since March 2020; Chongqing International Trust Co Ltd RMB62.8 million (US$9.87 million) since September 2020, although that is partly being paid down by a recent forced solar project sale; investors in a 2016 corporate bond RMB255 million (US$40 million) since Oct. 25; and Rainbow Fort Investments Ltd HK$175 million (US$22.4 million) since Nov. 30. Some HK$65.6 million owed to China Minsheng Banking Corp will fall due for payment at the end of March.

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