First, last week, Solar Millennium’s newly appointed CEO, Utz Claassen, abruptly resigns without any explanations. He had joined the company last December from German power utility Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) and was expected, among other things, to secure a substantial amount of financing to deploy the company’s solar thermal power plants in Europe and the Western U.S.
Then, this morning, hitting the G.E.R. email inbox is this press release, announcing an impending audit of the Solar Millennium books by Deloitte. Specifically, the accounting firm will review the company’s 2009 -2010 financial statements and those going all the way back to the 2004 – 2005 period.
In a statement the company said:
To completely dispel all doubt or any questions on the consolidation practices pertaining to the previous fiscal years of 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009, the Supervisory Board resolved over the weekend, at the request of the Management Board, to commission the same auditing firm with an extraordinary appraisal… The scope of work of Deloitte is to furnish an accountant’s opinion on the compliance of the Company’s consolidation practice.
Are Claassen’s sudden departure and the hiring of Deloitte related?
We’ve emailed Solar Millennium in Germany and will post with any relevant updates.