PVTIME – On December 13, Canadian Solar Inc. (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ: CSIQ), announced that its majority-owned subsidiary CSI Solar Co., Ltd. (“CSI Solar”) received approval for the proposed initial public offering and listing of its shares by the stock listing committee of the Science and Technology Innovation Board (“STAR Market”) of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
On December 13, 2021, the stock listing committee of the STAR Market determined that CSI Solar had met the offering, listing and disclosure requirements related to its proposed STAR Market listing. As a next step, CSI Solar will be required to go through the registration process with the China Securities Regulatory Commission before it can complete the listing of its shares on the STAR Market.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar commented, “This is an important milestone for Canadian Solar and takes us another step closer towards the planned STAR Market listing of our subsidiary CSI Solar. The listing will provide us another platform to raise growth capital and solidify our industry-leading module brand and manufacturing business.”
He added, “After CSI Solar’s planned listing on the STAR Market, Canadian Solar will remain as the majority and controlling shareholder of CSI Solar and the sole owner of the Global Energy business, which develops solar and battery storage projects in more than 20 countries across the world. We remain strongly committed to our NASDAQ listing and expect long-term shareholders to share the growth benefits of the planned STAR Market listing of CSI Solar. We appreciate the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s continued efforts to open its financial markets and welcome international foreign issuers such as Canadian Solar.”
The Company has completed the sale and transfer of the China Energy business from CSI Solar to the Global Energy business to avoid any potential competition between the Company and its CSI Solar subsidiary. Therefore, the China Energy business will not be part of the planned STAR Market listing. The scope of the sale and transfer includes all of the solar energy project development and ownership business in China. At the end of the third quarter of 2021, the China Energy business had a total solar project pipeline of 2.3 GWp, of which 300 MWp were in backlog (late-stage), and 127 MWp of operating solar power plants. The sale and transfer is expected to take effect by the end of 2021 and Canadian Solar’s segment reporting going forward will reflect this change.