Deutsche Bank Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and Credit Suisse are the initial purchasers of $220 million in debenture notes — due 2015, issued this week by SunPower, the California solar panel maker. The company plans to use the proceeds to shore up its liquidity and support the buyout of SunRay Renewable Energy, the solar power plant developer it acquired earlier this year.
The SunPower notes pay a 4.5 percent annual interest. Depending on investor demand the banks have two weeks to buy an additional $30 million in SunPower debentures — see SEC filing.
Holders can’t convert their debt into Class A SunPower share for another four years at a conversion price of $22.53 per share, a 25 percent premium over SunPower March 25th closing share price.
We called SunPower for confirmation and clarification.
In February SunPower acquired SunRay Renewable Energy for $263 million in cash and $14 million in promissory notes for SunRay. The deal expanded SunPower’s project pipeline by about 1,200 megawatts comprised of projects in Europe and the Middle East.