GCL

At this year’s 2021 SNEC Expo, GCL System Integration, a part of the Golden Concord Group (hereinafter referred to as GCL), launched a series of new module products which echoed the horn of the returning of this old giant. The company suffered a lot on finance in past few years due to subsidy default from central government to its heavy PV plant assets. After a big sale of these PV plants since late 2018 to China state owned energy enterprises, the liabilities and financial costs was cut off greatly and, the company reloaded with no more burden and came back to the frontline again. pv magazine caught up with general manager Thomas Kun Zhang to see what’s in store for GCL going forward.

The polysilicon maker, which is disposing of the solar farms managed by its New Energy business to pay down debt, is preparing to pay more than RMB1.2 billion to buy a minority stake in a subsidiary it already owns the rest of.

The Jinko Power unit of the solar manufacturer is planning a huge hybrid solar and wind project and China Energy Engineering is also making, slightly more modest, plans for generation capacity, as poly maker GCL continued its great PV project sell-off.

With trading in its Hong Kong-listed stock still suspended, the project development arm of the polysilicon manufacturer has continued its drive to sell down its portfolio to state-owned institutions.

With the solar industry already seeing prices rise because of a shortage of panel raw material polysilicon, an explosion yesterday at the factory of a silicon metal
and silicone producer in Xinjiang could have further repercussions on supply. No casualties have been reported.

The holders of $500 million worth of senior notes which were not settled in late January have accepted the polysilicon manufacturer’s plan to issue fresh three-year investments, after a meeting in Bermuda on Friday.

Shareholders will vote on whether to approve the sale of ten solar farms to generate $320 million towards paying down its heavy debt pile.

The Chinese polysilicon manufacturer said it only discovered this month that the stock in its solar project division – which it had pledged to secure a $60 million loan which GCL says was never delivered – had been claimed by the lender a year ago, on the grounds the finance agreement had been breached.

Deloitte has walked away from the polysilicon manufacturer, despite the latter having followed the accountant’s recommendation to appoint a third party to investigate why a near-$80 million payment was made in September 2019. Apparently the parties could not agree the detail of the investigation to be carried out.

The near-$80 million handed over to a contractor in 2019, of which around $2.3 million was retained by the recipient, is now being investigated by an independent accountant. Meanwhile, GCL’s shares remain suspended because the payment issue is holding up its 2020 accounts.