United States solar energy firm SunEdison has filed for bankruptcy protection after years of rapid-fire acquisitions.
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The renewables company reported a total debt of $11.7 billion by the end of September 2015, more than double the amount it reported past year, as it acquired projects and companies on six continents, prompting questions from investors whether it borrowed too much, too fast. Regulatory filings show the company was laden with at least $1.4 billion in first-lien and second-lien debt. The money will be used to support SunEdison’s operations during its bankruptcy, such as paying wages and vendors.
Our decision to initiate a court-supervised restructuring was a hard but important step to address our immediate liquidity issues.
Restructuring will allow SunEdison to become a “more streamlined and efficient operator” as it sheds non-core assets and takes advantage of its technological and intellectual assets, Chatila said. Solar power generation in the U.S. was 23.2 million megawatt-hours, up 52% from 2014 and up 186% from 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. TERP is up almost 5% on the day, while GLBL has gained over 11%.
Yet questions about SunEdison’s debt burden had already begun to grow by previous year.
SunEdison has been an aggressive user of “yieldcos”, companies created to own and operate power plants.
Earlier this month SunEdison’s independent directors concluded management had an “overly optimistic culture” caused in part by a lack of sufficient controls around forecasting efforts and wrongdoing by a former non-executive who was sacked.
Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE:BDN) is surging 4.41% percent and is at $14.90 in the Real-Time trading session.
After weeks of speculation in the media, renewable energy company SunEdison Inc. has filed for bankruptcy.
SunEdison is also being sued by TerraForm Global, its other yieldco, for breach of contract, alleging SunEdison misappropriated $231 million of TerraForm’s cash.
At $2.2 billion, it would have been SunEdison’s biggest deal to date.
The company said its publicly traded so-called yieldcos, TerraForm Power Inc. and TerraForm Global Inc., aren’t part of the filing.
SunEdison also recently came under scrutiny by the U.S. Justice Department for its accounting practices.
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Financial issues have placed dozens of projects around the world in danger. To facilitate this restructuring, SunEdison and certain of its domestic and worldwide auxiliaries have filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of NY.
