Solyndra, Fremont, California-based solar company, announced on June 17 that it entered into an agreement for the sale of secured convertible promissory notes to certain of its existing investors in an aggregate principal amount of $175 million in a private placement.
Solyndra said that this financing will be used to fund its existing operations and support its growth plans. "Given the ongoing uncertainties in the public capital markets, we elected to pursue alternative funding from our existing investor base. This funding allows us to address strong customer demand by maintaining our aggressive growth plans," said Dr. Chris Gronet, CEO of Solyndra.
The company expects first production from its Fab 2 manufacturing complex to occur in the fourth quarter of 2010, approximately two months ahead of schedule. "Fab 2 can't come on line a minute too soon," according to Dr. Gronet. "We've now sold over 300,000 panels for deployment on commercial rooftop sites in a dozen countries. By the fourth quarter of 2011, we expect our annualized production to exceed 300MW, enabling economies of scale that will substantially reduce our manufacturing costs."
Solyndra also announced that it has submitted a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw its Registration Statement on Form S-1, which was originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 18, 2009. The company elected not to proceed with an initial public offering of shares of its common stock at this time due to adverse market conditions and the availability of alternative funding from existing investors. No shares of Solyndra's common stock were sold pursuant to the Registration Statement.
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