Canadian Solar is expanding its solar portfolio by acquiring Recurrent Energy, the U.S.-based solar energy development unit of Sharp, Japan, for about 30 billion yen ($247 million).
As per the report from Reuters, the deal is set to be finalized by the end of the month and the sale is expected to be complete by Spring.
Official release of the agreement has not come yet.
Recurrent has developed and sold more than 680 megawatts of projects in the U.S. and Canada, and has more than 4.3 gigawatts under development.
Earlier this year, Recurrent started commercial operation of three of its solar photovoltaic projects which also got investment from Google and SunTap Energy.
In September, Sharp started looking for buyers for San Francisco-based Recurrent, which recorded 97 percent decline in profit in the first fiscal quarter of this year.
The deal also marks Sharp’s disinterest in solar energy business. Sharp has already closed down panel manufacturing in the U.S and U.K earlier this year. It also pulled out of the Italian solar panel manufacturing joint venture Enel SpA.
Sharp bought Recurrent in 2010 for $305 million. Selling the unit would help the company raise capital.
Last year Recurrent raised more than $2.3 billion in equity and debt financing and brought 303-megawatts into operation, says Bloomberg.
Sharp, which is struggling to raise its equity ratio, will use the fund from this deal to strengthen its capital.
In the third quarter of 2014, Canadian Solar has earned revenue of $914.4 million and announced a target to achieve over $2.93 billion in revenues for the full year 2014 as opposed to last year’s revenue of $1.65 billion.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com