REC Silicon’s Norwegian shareholders up in arms against Hanwha

Rec Silicon's Norwegian Shareholders Up In Arms Against Hanwha

REC Silicon's plant in Moses Lake, Wash. / Courtesy of REC Silicon

REC Silicon’s plant in Moses Lake, Wash. / Courtesy of REC Silicon

Korean firm, high stakeholder of Norwegian agency, silent on closure of US plant
By Park Jae-hyuk

Hanwha is going through sturdy opposition from Norwegian shareholders of REC Silicon.

They declare that REC Silicon’s board members, who’re from the Korean firm, which is the biggest shareholder of the Norwegian silicon supplies maker, have didn’t share their decision-making course of with smaller shareholders, leading to monetary losses for them.

They started protesting after REC’s inventory worth dropped by 50 % on the primary buying and selling day of the 12 months, following the Norwegian agency’s announcement on Dec. 30 that it will droop polysilicon manufacturing at its U.S. manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington, and cancel a 10-year contract with Hanwha to provide the uncooked materials for photo voltaic panels.

It was revealed later that Hanwha determined to supply polysilicon from a Malaysian plant of OCI Holdings, one other Korean photo voltaic vitality firm, because of the decrease high quality of REC’s merchandise.

Hanwha's headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Hanwha

Hanwha’s headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Hanwha

„The shutdown of the Moses Lake facility follows quite a few, beforehand disclosed efforts to enhance the extent of some key impurities that resulted primarily from the post-reactor product ending and dealing with techniques,“ REC Silicon mentioned in a press launch.

„The corporate was unsuccessful in its makes an attempt to totally rectify the problems and in the end acquired an unsuccessful qualification take a look at.“

In response, a bunch of REC’s Norwegian minority shareholders launched an internet site earlier this month to hunt additional clarification concerning the administration’s determination to close down its U.S. plant.

Questioning the independence of REC’s board of administrators from Hanwha, the motion group known as for a rare common assembly (EGM) to analyze whether or not the Norwegian agency has fulfilled its disclosure obligations to shareholders equally and whether or not it has correctly managed shareholder funds.

„This contains analyzing potential uneven entry to info between Hanwha and minority shareholders,“ the group mentioned. „On the EGM, we’ll suggest the election of latest board members to symbolize minority shareholders‘ pursuits.“

Two of Hanwha’s senior executives — Jun Tae-won and Chung Joo-yong — at the moment function the chair and the deputy chair of REC’s board of administrators. As well as, REC’s chief monetary officer and the chief technique officer are additionally former executives of Hanwha.

Hanwha Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, the oldest son of Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn, was additionally beforehand the deputy chair of REC’s board of administrators. He has been main the Korean conglomerate’s solar energy enterprise in the US.

The Korean conglomerate, nevertheless, distanced itself from the Norwegian agency.

„Though it’s true that we maintain a stake in REC, the corporate capabilities extra as a provider, not a subsidiary or an affiliate. In consequence, we’ve not been concerned in its inside points,“ mentioned a spokesperson for Hanwha Options Q Cells Division, which oversees the conglomerate’s solar energy enterprise.

Since 2022, Hanwha Options has remained the largest shareholder of REC with a 21.33 % stake. Hanwha Corp., the Korean conglomerate’s holding firm, additionally owns a 12 % stake in REC.

The Norwegian minority shareholders claimed that that they had gathered proxies from REC stakeholders who personal about 13 % of the corporate’s shares as of final Friday. In Norway, shareholders representing no less than 5 % of an organization’s shares have the precise to demand a rare common assembly.

Some consider that the minority shareholders could collaborate with Gilchrest Berg, an American investor who owns a 5.37 % stake in REC by way of his firm, Water Road Capital.

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