Ascent Solar Technologies Inc (ASTI) rose the most in more than four months after TFG Radiant Group agreed to double its stake in the US thin-film solar company.
Ascent climbed 33 percent to 56 cents at the close in New York, the biggest gain since TFG Radiant bought its initial, 20 percent stake in the company August 15. The shares have declined 84 percent in the past year.
TFG Radiant will pay $4 million, or about 50 cents a share, for Norsk Hydro Produksjon AS’s stake in Ascent, the Thornton, Colorado-based solar company said today in a statement. The purchase will boost TFG Radiant’s holdings to 41 percent.
TFG Radiant, a joint venture of the Chinese construction and real-estate company Radiant Group and the Singapore-based investment company Tertius Financial Group, bought in August 6.4 million Ascent shares for $1.15 each, or 20 percent of the total shares outstanding.
It also agreed then to build a solar plant in China that will use Ascent’s process for making thin-film panels using copper-indium-gallium-diselenide. TFG has exclusive rights to sell the panels in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea and Singapore.
