The Hanwha Group Now World’s Third Largest Solar Manufacturer With Q.CELLS Acquisition
November 30, 2012 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis The Hanwha Group has just become the third largest solar manufacturer in the world with its newly completed acquisition of Q.CELLS and the now launch of Hanwha Q.CELLS.
Q.CELLS solar power plant in Zerbst, Germany. Photo courtesy of Q.CELLS.
The South Korean conglomerate acquired the bankrupt German photovoltaic developer and manufacturer last August.
The Hanwah Group justified the purchase decision, saying that the bankruptcy filed by Q.CELLS last April was due to a downturn in the global solar industry, the European sovereign debt crisis, and a reduction in German solar subsidy, and promoting that, “Even so, Q.CELLS has remained as a leading global solar player with revenues of EUR 1,354 million and EUR 1,023 million, in 2010 and 2011 respectively.”
Hanwha acquired the following assets from Q.CELLS:
- The headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany, as well as the research and development operations in Germany.
- The 200 MW cell and 120 MW module manufacturing facilities in Germany.
- The 800 MW cell manufacturing facility in Malaysia.
- Sales offices in the United States, Australia, and Japan.
- 34 patents.
Hanwha says that the total acquisition value is EUR 40 million (around KRW 55.5 billion), and that it has also “effectively negotiated to buy the existing loan agreement (MYR 850 million/around KRW 300 billion) signed between Q.CELLS Malaysia and the Malaysian government.”
The conglomerate added that, “With a strong support shown by the Malaysian government, the loan has been structured in such ways that Hanwha can use the profits generated from Malaysia operations to pay [it] back in the long-term.”
Hanwha touts that with Q.CELLS’ capacity of 1GW added to Hanwha Solar’s existing cell production capacity of 1.3 GW, Hanwha will reach the total annual production capacity of 2.3GW and “become the third largest solar cell manufacturer in the world.”
Hanwha’s 2.3 GW of manufacturing capacity will be distributed across Germany, Malaysia, and China, which the conglomerate sees as a competitive advantage in being able to “supply any region in the world [with solar power], free of trade sanctions.”