SolarWorld details results of bondholder acquisition rights exercise

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, March 6 - SolarWorld AG announced the results of the exercising of acquisition rights by creditors of its previous 2016 and 2017 bonds, according to a news release.

Within the acquisition period from Feb. 3 to Feb. 21, the company said the bondholders made use of their acquisition rights to new shares and notes in each case at a level of more than 80%.

The new shares and notes for which bond creditors did not exercise their acquisition rights were offered to previous bond creditors and eligible previous shareholders for additional purchase.

SolarWorld said the net proceeds from the realization of these oversubscription shares and oversubscription notes will be paid as a cash settlement to the previous bond creditors who have not exercised their acquisition rights.

According to the release, the demand for oversubscription shares and oversubscription notes was so high that the remaining amount of just under 20% of the new shares and notes was already able to be allocated within the acquisition period.

The company said the remaining new shares were oversubscribed several times by eligible bond creditors and shareholders, so that orders for the additional purchase of new shares could only be satisfied with 50 shares in each case and an amount of well above 10% of the order volume exceeding this.

The allocation price stood at €12.50 per share.

Meanwhile, orders for the additional purchase of notes were allocated in full for the relevant order. The allocation price totaled €265 per new secured series 1116 2019 bond and €316.73 per new secured series 1017 2019 bond.

After deduction of the realization costs, SolarWorld said net proceeds of €7.67 million will arise from the realization of the oversubscription shares and oversubscription notes for the acquisition rights not exercised for the 2016 bond and net proceeds of €27.21 million for the acquisition rights not exercised for the 2017 bond.

SolarWorld said the creditors of the 2016 bond will receive €82.23 per not exercised acquisition right to 7.31 new shares and €238.50 to a new series 1116 secured bond. Creditors of the previous 2017 bond will receive €76.16 per not exercised acquisition right to 6.77 new shares and €320.82 per not exercised acquisition right to a new series 1017 secured bond.

The cash settlement payment is expected to be made by March 14.

"By the successful restructuring, losses of bond creditors could be limited, and the new shares give them a chance to gain an increase in value again," attorney and joint 2016 bondholder representative Alexander Elsmann said in the release.

SolarWorld is a Bonn, Germany, solar panel maker.

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