Solar Stocks Surge As Canadian Solar CEO Aims To Go Private

Several major solar energy stocks, including SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) and SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) , surged on Monday morning after Canadian Solar’s (NASDAQ:CSIQ) CEO announced his plan to take the company private.

Chief executive Shawn Qu made his intentions known in a letter to Canadian Solar’s board of directors. Qu offered to buy Canadian Solar’s remaining shares for $18.47 per share, which marked more than a 7.1% premium over Friday’s closing price.

The CEO also noted that his buyout deal is potentially more attractive because it represents roughly a 10% premium to Canadian Solar’s average closing price over the last 90 days of trading. The deal would value Canadian Solar at $1.07 billion.

Canadian Solar’s long-time CEO broke his plan to take the company private into eight parts, detailing steps that include forming an acquisition vehicle to pursue the transaction and financing the deal with a combination of debt and equity capital.

The offer has yet to be thoroughly reviewed by Canadian Solar’s board of directors, although it has formed a special committee of “independent and disinterested” directors to consider Qu’s proposal.

In a company statement on Monday, the board noted that it “cautions that there can be no assurance that any definitive offer relating to the Proposed Transaction or any other transaction will be made by Dr. Qu or any other person.”

Shares of Canadian Solar popped over 5% premarket and currently hover up around 4.70%, at $18 per share.

Before Monday’s surge, shares of Canadian Solar had soared 41.63% since the beginning of 2017, but the stock has dipped slightly over the last 12 weeks.

Qu’s proposal to take Canadian Solar private helped send the rest of the solar energy industry higher on Monday.

Shares of SunPower Corporation soared over 13%. SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. saw its stock price jump 2.50%, while Sunrun Inc. (RUN) gained over 1%. The Guggenheim Solar ETF (LON:TAN) popped over 1%.

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