Q cells

Q cells
legal form	Co., Ltd
founding	2012
Seat	Seoul , South Korea Thalheim, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (technology and innovation)
management	Hee Cheul Kim ( CEO ) , Dong Kwan Kim ( CCO ) , Jung Pyo Seo ( CFO ) , Ji Weon Jeong ( CTO )
Number of employees	7510 (2017)
sales	$ 2.2 billion (2017)
Branch	Photovoltaic energy retail
Website	https://www.q-cells.de

Hanwha Q Cells Co., Ltd. and Hanwha Q Cells & Advanced Materials Corp. (Spelling: "Hanwha Q CELLS" or "Q CELLS") is a global photovoltaic company. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea (Global Executive Headquarters) and Thalheim, Germany (Technology & Innovation Headquarters). Hanwha Q Cells Co. Ltd. was created in February 2015 from the merger of Hanwha Q Cells with Hanwha SolarOne. With this step, the South Korean Hanwha Group merged its two photovoltaic companies into one group. The company had previously been presented in October 2012 after the Hanwha Group had acquired large parts of the former Q-Cells SE as part of an asset deal. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the NASDAQ between 2015 and 2018. At the end of 2018, the company was re-privatized in a “going private” transaction and renamed Hanwha Q Cells & Advanced Materials Corp. renamed. The company's German branch operates as Hanwha Q Cells GmbH. According to the company, around 10,000 people work for Hanwha Q Cells, around 550 of them in Germany. Hanwha Q Cells sells its photovoltaic products and energy services under the Q Cells product brand.

history

In 1999 Anton Milner, Reiner Lemoine , Holger Feist and Paul Grunow founded Q-Cells in Berlin with the aim of setting up solar cell production in Germany. Lemoine and Grunow were previously involved in the founding of Solon AG , a solar module manufacturer, where Feist was employed. In July 2001 the first production line for polycrystalline solar cells went into operation in Thalheim . The first functioning solar cell rolled off the assembly line on July 23, 2001.

In June 2009 the company took over Solibro GmbH , which manufactured CIGS thin-film solar cells based on copper-indium-gallium-diselenide . These modules were marketed under the Q.SMART product category until Solibro was sold in 2012 and, with an efficiency of 13.4%, achieve the highest level of efficiency worldwide for thin-film modules in series production.

Also in July 2011, the company put a production line for crystalline solar modules into operation at the headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. With this, Q-Cells expanded the location ten years after the start of cell production to include module production. The production capacity was 130 MWp and was primarily available for the production of monocrystalline solar modules of the Q.PEAK type.

Key figures

Q-Cells SE posted considerable losses in the 2011 financial year. More than half of the share capital was used up. The company was also expecting red figures in the 2012 financial year. The creditors supported a restructuring with a deferred payment of € 500 million. Since the restructuring plan is unlikely to be successful, the company filed for bankruptcy on April 3, 2012 . According to the company, a positive EBITDA should be generated again in the 2013 financial year.

share

With effect from October 5, 2005, the German stock corporation Q-Cells AG was listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. On December 19, 2005, Q-Cells and ErSol Solar Energy AG moved up to the TecDAX of the German stock exchange. From its introduction on June 4, 2007 to June 15, 2012, the share was also listed in the ÖkoDAX , but was resumed on September 24, 2012 after the plant manufacturer Centrotherm photovoltaics left.

The market value rose from 20 euros to around 80 euros at the end of 2007, but then fell - mainly due to the competition in Asia - to 0.50 euros. In June 2011 there were around 27 million shares on which a dividend of EUR 0.03 each was distributed for the 2009 and 2010 financial years. In the fall of 2011, speculators increasingly targeted the share. The banks BNP Paribas , Commerzbank , Deutsche Bank and DZ Bank offered so-called call and put options as derivatives , which can be used to bet on rising or falling prices. These derivatives were sometimes traded in millions and in total exceeded the number of stocks actually available. According to the Bloomberg news agency, 45 percent of Q-Cells shares were subject to speculation in this way.

In the following period, the proportion of shares in free float rose from 80 (November 2011) to almost 97 percent (September 2012), as some investors withdrew from the stake. After the listing in the Prime Standard was canceled on October 23, 2012, the share was removed from the ÖkoDAX.

restructuring

In June 2012 an agreement was announced for the sale of the Solibro subsidiary to the Chinese company Hanergy Holdings Group. The insolvency proceedings against Q-Cells began on July 1, 2012, but there should be no layoffs for the time being.

In August 2012, the South Korean company Hanwha submitted an offer to take over Q-Cells. The Spanish company Isofotón had also expressed interest. On August 29, 2012, the creditors' meeting approved the sale of Q-Cells to Hanwha, after the South Korean company and the insolvency administrator had already signed a corresponding contract on August 26. Hanwha will accept company-related liabilities of around EUR 220 million and a purchase price of EUR 40 million in cash. The intention was to continue the majority of the Q-Cells group, including the Bitterfeld location and the plant in Malaysia, as well as to keep three quarters of the 1,550 jobs. The Federal Cartel Office still had to approve the purchase agreement. After the completion, the insolvent Q-Cells SE was renamed Global PVQ SE , the parts of the company taken over by Hanwha now operate as Hanwha Q-Cells.

The Hanwha Group presented the company Hanwha Q Cells on October 24, 2012. Six months after the launch of Hanwha Q-Cells, the company announced in March 2013 that its order situation was solid and that its production facilities were well utilized. In May 2013, Hanwha Q Cells presented a new generation of products. In October 2013, the company announced that it had increased the capacity of its factory in Malaysia from 800 to over 900 megawatts in its first fiscal year, bringing the total capacity to 1.1 gigawatts. In addition, it has increased the efficiency of its production facilities and thereby significantly reduced production costs. In December 2013, the photovoltaic company announced an increase in its equity of around 138.5 million euros and announced a further expansion of its production capacity for 2014. The photovoltaic company specified the latter in August 2014: it will expand its entire production capacity to 1.5 gigawatts by the end of the year.

In December 2014, the Hanwha Group announced that it was merging its two solar subsidiaries, Hanwha SolarOne and Hanwha Q Cells, to form a solar company. The merger was legally completed in February 2015. The new company operated as Hanwha Q Cells Co. Ltd. until the end of 2018. and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on NASDAQ . In early 2019, the company merged with Hanwha Solar Holdings Co., Ltd., and withdrew from NASDAQ. Since then, the company has operated as Hanwha Q Cells & Advanced Materials Corp. It has its two headquarters in Seoul, South Korea (Global Executive) and Thalheim, Germany (Technology & Innovation). The production capacity of Hanwha Q Cells in May 2015 was 3.5 GW for solar cells and 2.8 GW for solar modules. The combined production capacity for solar cells and solar modules from Hanwha Q Cells was 9 GW in May 2019. In February 2019, the company also opened a solar module manufacturing facility with a total capacity of 1.8 GW in Georgia, USA. In January 2019, the NASDAQ listing was terminated by delisting; after internal restructuring, Q CELLS is now 100% owned by the Hanwha Group.

In Germany

At the headquarters for technology & quality in Thalheim , the company has a list of research and development, quality management as well as marketing and sales. In addition, the company is active in the solar power plant business from its German location in Berlin. The former mass production in Germany was discontinued in March 2015. Hanwha Q Cells has also been active as a fully integrated energy supplier on the German market since mid-2019.

Research and Development

Hanwha Q Cells products are developed at its headquarters in Germany and manufactured in the company's manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Korea and China. In July 2011, Q-Cells announced a research success in crystalline photovoltaics. A multicrystalline module with an efficiency of 18.1 percent based on the aperture area was presented. The module is based on a new generation of cells that Q-Cells calls Q.ANTUM. So far, the record was 17.8 percent.

Hanwha Q-Cells has brought the so-called “Q.ANTUM” cell concept into mass production for every silicon base. This technology uses a dielectric backing to reflect light rays back into the cell that would otherwise have passed through the cell unused, where they are converted into electricity. Solar cells using this technology achieve efficiencies of up to 19.5%. This has been confirmed by the independent Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.

The company also runs exchange programs with universities and research institutions. In 2009 the Reiner Lemoine research center was opened at the company's headquarters. The cooperation partners of the PV company include German and international research centers such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg, the Institute for Solar Research Hameln (ISFH), the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics (CSP) in Halle, the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), the Helmholtz Center Berlin and the University of Konstanz .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hanwha Q-CELLS sales, key figures, balance sheet / income statement. finanzen.net, accessed on June 16, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Hanwha merges Q-Cells and SolarOne manager magazin, December 9, 2014
3. ↑ https://www.fr.de/wirtschaft/uebernahmekrimi-q-cells-11346160.html
4. ↑ Q-Cells: Back on the stock exchange Der Aktionär, December 8, 2014
5. ↑ Q Cells company profile Wallstreet-Online, accessed June 13, 2019
6. ↑ Chairman of the Management Board Anton Milner resigns with immediate effect. photovoltaik-guide.de from March 11, 2010
7. ↑ Hanergy buys Solibro . handelsblatt.com dated June 5, 2012
8. ↑ Q-Cells SE sets efficiency record for CIGS thin-film solar modules . Retrieved on May 20, 2011.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
9. ↑ Q-Cells starts its own module production at the German site in Thalheim . Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
10. ↑ Postponement of payment: Creditors give Q-Cells air. In: manager magazin online. February 28, 2012, archived from the original on March 9, 2012 ; Retrieved March 9, 2012 .  
11. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Q-Cells wants insolvency - Phoenix Solar under pressure , stern.de, April 3, 2012.
12. ↑ Q-Cells publishes preliminary figures for the fourth quarter and the full year 2011. Q-Cells SE, March 6, 2012, archived from the original on March 10, 2012 ; Retrieved March 10, 2012 .  
13. ↑ Deutsche Börse AG: Deutsche Börse decides on the composition of its indices. (No longer available online.) December 5, 2005, archived from the original on May 17, 2008 ; accessed on March 31, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
14. ↑ Ralf Drescher: Sudden doubling of course: Q-Cells panics speculators. In: Handelsblatt.com. November 4, 2011, archived from the original on November 9, 2011 ; Retrieved November 9, 2011 .  
15. ↑ Extraordinary change in the composition of the index in ÖkoDAX. (No longer available online.) Deutsche Börse , October 18, 2012, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on October 16, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ Hanergy buys Solibro . handelsblatt.com dated June 5, 2012
17. ↑ Insolvency proceedings: Q-Cells waives layoffs . ( Memento of July 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) FTD of July 2, 2012
18. ↑ Q-Cells: Hanwha takes over German solar company for 250 million euros . Spiegel Online from August 27, 2012
19. ↑ Q-Cells: Spanish Isofoton wants to take over insolvent Q-Cells ( memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) at ftd.de, August 27, 2012 (accessed on August 28, 2012).
20. ↑ Solar group: Q-Cells creditors approve sale to South Korea ( Memento from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at ftd.de, August 29, 2012 (accessed on August 29, 2012).
21. ↑ Hanwha is allowed to take over Q-Cells ( memento of the original from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at photovoltaik.eu, August 29, 2012 (accessed on August 29, 2012). 
22. ↑ PVTECH: Hanwha Group sets up Hanwha Q.Cells , October 24, 2012.
23. ↑ Press release "Hanwha Q-Cells consolidates position as a reliable partner in the solar industry" from April 25, 2013 ( Memento from October 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
24. ↑ Solar Industry: Hanwha Q-Cells Unveils New G3 Solar Modules, May 13, 2013
25. ↑ Press release "Successful first business year for Hanwha Q-Cells" from October 15, 2013 ( Memento from October 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
26. ↑ Handelsblatt: Hanwha is putting additional money into Q-Cells, December 5, 2013
27. ↑ DIE WELT: Hanwha Q-Cells increases production capacity, August 7, 2014
28. ↑ Hanwha will merge Q-Cells and SolarOne on December 8, 2014
29. ↑ PV-Magazine: Hanwha Q-Cells completes internal going-private reorganization , January 18, 2019, accessed on May 23, 2019 (English)
30. ↑ Hanwha Q-Cells before the restart after the end of production in Germany on February 26, 2015
31. ↑ SolarServer Q Cells wants to become an energy supplier, February 27, 2019
32. ↑ Q-Cells SE achieves fourth world record in the current financial year with multicrystalline solar modules . Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
33. ↑ Ee News: "Intersolar: Q.ANTUM Technology from Hanwha Q-Cells". June 6, 2014.
34. ↑ Hanwha Q-Cells: Research and Development. ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.