A Hong Kong property investor has invested about $20 billion in Chinese solar manufacturing company in hopes of expanding his range of businesses in environmentally friendly technologies and may even seek Wall Street investment for the same.
Zheng Jianming, chairman and founder of Asia Pacific Resources Development Investment Ltd., is considering a public listing for the holding organization he made to manage the biggest buildup of solar-manufacturing businesses.
The Hong Kong-based organization is likewise putting resources into battery innovation, electric cars, geothermal systems as well as units that utilize seawater to store power. The objective is to supply clean energy for every part of day by day life, “from the power source to heating and cooling, lighting and vehicles,” Zheng said.
Zheng, 50, has invested around $2.5 billion to $3 billion in clear energy in last decade. That incorporates just about $1 billion to turn into the biggest shareholder in Shunfeng Photovoltaic International Ltd., a solar panel and power-plant manufacturer situated in Changzhou, China.
“For many years I watched the industry’s development and waited for the most suitable time to invest,” said Zheng.
Shunfeng Photovoltaic International Ltd. has turned into the leader for its clean energy goals. In April, it acquired the primary assembling unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co., which once reigned as the biggest solar panel manufacturer. Its corporate parents neglected to pay $541 million in US bonds a year ago. Its Wuxi, China, manufacturing operations were pulled into bankruptcy in China.
In May, Shunfeng agreed to buy the bankrupt German sun based inverter manufacturer Sunways AG for $2.8 million and is purchasing the assets of S.A.G. Solarstrom AG, a solar developer that is similarly indebted, for 65 million euros.
One more Zheng holding organization acquired in 2013 to the extent that 25 percent of LDK Solar Co, the second-biggest photovoltaic wafer manufacturer. It has since defaulted on 1.7 billion yuan ($276 million) of notes that matured in February.
Zheng supposes that Suntech will triple shipments of solar panels in the not so distant future to 2.4 gigawatts, from around 800 megawatts a year ago. Counting his other clean energy investments, he hopes to create power plants with the capacity to produce 50 gigawatts of power. That much capacity is enough to supply all of South Africa, where the state-owned utility has around 42 gigawatts of installed limit.
“Shunfeng will be a pure clean energy provider,” Zheng said at the Next Generation Solar PV Finance Conference.
Shunfeng has additionally invested in the energy-storage company Powin Energy Corp and Boston Power Inc., which is manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles.
It’s sponsoring Taiwan Carbon Nanotube Technology Corp, which is utilizing nanotechnology within battery systems focused around seawater, and Green Wheel Electric Vehicles, a Chinese supplier of electric autos and transports.
Asia Pacific Resources’ various holdings may be hard to line together into a reasonable clean-vitality powerhouse, said Shyam Mehta, an investigator at Boston-based GTM Research, said in a meeting.
“It could be that there is some strategy behind this, of actually rebuilding these companies and getting them to work together in a way that enhances both their value and builds up some sort of mega solar company,” Mehta said. “Maybe it’s nothing that exceptional. He just has a lot of holdings in several different solar companies.”
Zheng said he may seek IPOs for a percentage of the individual organizations, for example, Boston Power or Lattice Power Corp., a Chinese manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting. Inevitably, he would consider a public listing for the parent organization Asia Pacific Resources, he said.
“In my many years of investment, I’ve been focused on the development of the industry’s value chain,” said Zheng. “That is why I’ve never made a mistake.”
Zheng believes his investments mirror China’s development, and emphasizes that what his country strongly needs right now is clean energy.
