Conergy AG (CGYK) rose to its highest since February after a report by the Financial Times Deutschland said the German solar-panel maker is close to selling a 30 percent stake to a Chinese peer.
Conergy jumped as much as 16 percent to 57 euro cents a share, and was 11 percent higher at 54.6 euro cents at 11 am local time. What really remains is when the deal will be completed, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person with knowledge of the deal who declined to name the buyer.
“We’re interesting for a set of Asian companies,” Antje Stephan, a Conergy spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We get requests on and off, they’re confidential and we handle them confidentially. To put this into perspective very clearly: There is no deal imminent.”
Conergy, once Germany’s largest solar company, and its domestic counterparts are under pressure as subsidies fall at home amid competition from Chinese companies depressed margins and panel prices. The Jiangxi, China-based solar wafer-maker LDK Solar bid about 24.2 million euros in January for the German solar company Sunways AG. (SWW)
The Hamburg-based company is cutting jobs, halting production of wafers and cells, and focusing on end-product modules and services in a bid to become profitable. Conergy has a market value of about 88 million euros ($114 million).
