Solar Cells Info

Biggest ever renewables company to list in London

By Sophie Brodie, 10 May 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/05/09/bcncrystalox.xml

Crystalox, a company based in Wantage that makes silicon ingots for solar panels, is to list on the London market. It is expected to be the biggest IPO by a company involved in renewable energy in the UK, valuing the business at £500m. The company is to issue £50m in new shares and existing investors will float £100m, making £150m in total available to the market.

The British company was spun out of Oxford University over 15 years ago, after researchers perfected a technique for growing crystals for semi-conductors used in micro-chips. Its multicrystalline silicon turned out to be ideal for solar technology, then barely considered as an industrial use.

Crystalox is now one of the largest suppliers of silicon to solar panel makers Sharp and Schott Solar. It exports around three-quarters of its output to Japan and the remainder to Europe, via a factory in Germany.  Crystalox first mooted the idea of floating 18 months ago. Since then solar power companies such as Q-Cells and Ersol have raised over £200m through the German market.

Thanks to the need to tackle climate change, Crytalox has been profitable for the last five years, during which time it has tripled sales and improved margins. Most of its profits are made in the UK. The solar power market has grown from 427 megawatts being installed in 2002 to 1,744 megawatts in 2006. This is predicted to rise to 5,550 in 2010.
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Solar power chiefs generate £240m

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor, 10 May 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2527747.ece

The directors of a solar power company are to net a £240m windfall in the biggest flotation yet of a renewables business on the London market.  PV Crystalox Solar, which makes silicon wafers for solar roof panels, is expected to be valued at around £500m when it lists on the main market next month.

The float will value the stakes of the chief executive, Iain Dorrity, the technical director, Barry Garrard, and a third director, the late Robin Greaves, at some £80m each. In total the management own 84 per cent of the business, which was set up in Wantage, Oxfordshire, 22 years ago.

Mr Dorrity, Mr Garrard and the family of Mr Greaves are expected to cash in a quarter of their shareholdings in the offer, netting them £20m each. In total, the float will raise about £150m. Of this, £50m will be new money, which will enable the company to build a plant in Germany to produce its own feedstock of polysilicon.

The solar power market is growing at a rate of 30-35 per cent a year. PV Crystalox makes the wafers for photovoltaic roof panels which produce electricity as opposed to simply heating water. About 75 per cent of the company’s production of silicon ingots goes to Japan, while the rest is sent to Germany, where it is processed into wafers for the European market.