US PE firm Kawa Capital to buy most of bankrupt German solar firm Conergy

US private-equity firm Kawa Capital Management Inc, yesterday agreed to buy most of Conergy AG's global operations, just two weeks after the German solar company filed for bankruptcy.

Florida-based Kawa Capital will buy two of the Hamburg-based company's domestic entities Conergy Deutschland GmbH and Conergy Services GmbH as well as subsidiaries in North America, Asia and Europe.

Kawa also plans to acquire the service and sales units of Conergy in Hamburg and Zweibrücken, Germany.

Neither companies nor the administrator disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

Not included in the transaction are Conergy's production subsidiaries Mounting Systems GmbH and Conergy SolarModule GmbH, which the administrator Sven-Holger Undritz is expected to finalise a sale in the next four weeks.

Undritz said, "For Mounting Systems, we are already in talks with potential investors. I am confident we will very soon find a solution for the two subsidiaries in Rangsdorf and Frankfurt, which are affected by the preliminary insolvency."

"We are excited about this potential transaction with Conergy, a global leader in the downstream solar industry," said Daniel Ades, managing partner at Kawa.

"The solar PV (photo voltaic) market is growing exponentially as costs approach grid parity and Conergy is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this opportunity globally."

Early this month, Conergy filed for bankruptcy, after lenders refused to bail out once Germany's biggest solar panel maker. (See: German solar group Conergy files for bankruptcy)

Conergy, which has been for long suffering from the German solar industry crisis, filed for bankruptcy at the Hamburg district court after payment from a large-scale project got delayed and it failed to bridge a financial gap.

Although Conergy had been in talks with its 10 creditors on a restructuring deal, lenders had rejected an Asian investor's restructuring plans.

The deal would have seen an unidentified Asian investor taking a €261.5 million ($338 million) syndicated loan from a consortium of 10 banks - led by Commerzbank, and pumping in €50 million of equity.

Conergy, which was valued at €2.2 billion just six years ago, is today worth only €81 million.

The company generated around €473 million ($609 million) and posted an operating loss of €83 million last year. In early morning trading today, its stock plunged by nearly 70 per cent to around €0.12 a share.