Midsummer issuing bonds to speed growth and sales of solar energy products

Faced with increasing demand mainly from the US market, Midsummer AB of Järfälla, near Stockholm, Sweden – a provider of turnkey production lines as well as flexible, lightweight copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar panels for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) – is contemplating the issue of up to SEK500m ($53.8m, €47.6m) green senior unsecured bond and has announced its Green Bond Framework. Funds will be used to invest in DUO production capacity, increase R&D and strengthen sales channels to end consumers.

Midsummer’s revenues rose at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 97% during 2014-2018. In 2018, the firm received orders totaling SEK265m, driven mainly by increasing demand for its products in the US market.

To capitalize on the strong momentum, Midsummer has mandated DNB Markets and Nordea as joint arrangers for a potential four-year, SEK-denominated senior unsecured green bond issue. The green bond will have a framework of SEK500m. Net proceeds will be used in line with the green bond framework of 22 March and will include (i) production and distribution of solar panels and solar cells; (ii) production of solar panel manufacturing equipment; and (iii) R&D on solar panels, solar cells and solar panel manufacturing equipment.

To confirm that the framework is aligned with the 2018 version of the ICMA Green Bond Guidelines, Midsummer has engaged Sustainalytics to provide a second-party opinion. DNB Markets and Nordea have acted as structurers of the framework.

“Midsummer is firmly established as the leader in the development and supply of energy-efficient thin-film solar cells, ideal for the booming urban BIPV market,” claims CEO Sven Lindström. “Considering the strongly increasing demand for our solutions and the still huge global potential for BIPV, we wish to accelerate production capacity, sales channels and growth in order to faster and on a grander scale be able to install large volumes of flexible solar panels on all the markets that we target,” he adds.

“This includes evolving our business model from mainly selling manufacturing equipment to also include considerably increased in-house production of solar panels for the end market, and the establishment of a network of contract manufacturers.”

Tags: CIGS Thin-film PV

Visit: www.midsummer.se