Solar Millennium

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Solar Millennium AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN DE0007218406
founding 1998
Seat Erlangen , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Volker Böhm, insolvency administrator
Number of employees 235
sales 73.2 million euros
Branch Solar energy, power plant construction
Website www.solarmillennium.de

The Solar Millennium AG is a 1998 in Erlangen based and insolvent since December 2011. German company in the design and realization of solar thermal power plants is specialized. Solar Millennium sees itself as a technology and service company. The main activities are location search, project development, planning, conceptual design and construction of parabolic trough power plants .

history

Solar Millennium headquarters in Erlangen, 2012

The company was founded in October 1998 as Solar Century Management GmbH . This was renamed Solar Millennium GmbH in March 1999 . The corporation was created through conversion in June 1999.

On January 1, 2010 Utz Claassen , former CEO of EnBW , one of the largest energy companies in Germany, became CEO of Solar Millennium, but surprisingly resigned his position on March 15, 2010.

On August 17, 2011, the company announced that it would use conventional photovoltaic modules for the planned Blythe solar power plant in California for cost reasons. These and other negative reports caused the share price to drop by 60%, and then by 90% later. On October 10, 2011, it was announced that Solar Millennium AG was planning to sell the entire US investment to Solarhybrid AG, which was to build PV systems there. The company should share in the profits from the realization of the power plant.

A bond with a total volume of 100 million euros, the use of which was mainly planned for the large power station in Blythe, was stopped in mid-September 2011 because the latest developments had to be reflected in a supplement to the prospectus. Since the liquid funds were not sufficient for the 2012 financial year to cover the liabilities due, Solar Millennium was therefore dependent on additional bank loans.

On December 21, 2011, the company announced that it had filed for insolvency at the Fürth district court . Before that, important sales contracts related to the US involvement, among other things, could not have been concluded. On February 28, 2012 the bankruptcy proceedings were opened.

In 2013, media reports put the financial loss for around 30,000 investors, shareholders and bondholders at EUR 200 million.

In summer 2015 it was announced that around 25 million euros would be paid out to the creditors from the bankruptcy estate. Another 10.6 million euros were paid out to creditors in autumn 2019.

Projects

The first large-scale power plant project implemented was the Andasol complex , which consists of three directly adjacent, essentially identical parabolic trough power plants Andasol 1 to 3 in southern Spain.

From June 2006, the parabolic trough power plant "Andasol 1" was built on the Guadix plateau in Andalusia . Andasol 1 ran in test operation from October 2008 and went online in December 2008. However, it was only officially inaugurated in July 2009, as the electricity supply had not previously been in fully approved regular operation. Andasol 1 is the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe. Another parabolic trough power plant “Andasol 2”, which is practically identical in construction, was built directly next to Andasol 1 on the Guadix plateau; construction began here in February 2007 and the power plant has been on the grid since 2009. Even before the completion of this power plant, construction work began on the parabolic trough power plant “Andasol 3”, which went into operation in autumn 2011. Since the third power plant went into operation, the Andasol 1 to 3 parabolic trough systems, each with around 500,000 m² of collector surface, have been supplying around 500,000 people with solar power. The company has now sold all of its own shares in Andasol 1 and Andasol 2 to other consortia. Andasol 3 was jointly financed by Solar Millennium, Stadtwerke München, RWE Innogy, RheinEnergie and Ferrostaal. The power plant was officially inaugurated on September 30, 2011.

For the initiation and development of the Andasol 1 to 3 parabolic trough power plants, Solar Millennium AG received the Energy Globe Award in the “Fire” category, endowed with 10,000 euros .

With the Ibersol and Arenales power plants - each with an output of 50 MW - Solar Millennium AG pursued further projects in Spain. The realization of the Ibersol project seems questionable, however, because the time frame is too short (completion by the end of 2013) and the financing is therefore unsecured. The company has already sold most of the Arenales project (currently under construction, to be completed by the end of 2013 at the latest) and only has a 26% stake, although the project is largely financed by outside capital.

In December 2008, the construction of a parabolic trough solar field in Egypt began. Solar Millennium was only involved in the project planning. This solar field is part of the hybrid power plant built south of Cairo, which was put out to tender by the Egyptian government and which is to use both solar thermal energy and natural gas. In December 2010, as part of the commissioning, the entire solar field was oriented towards the sun for the first time and the thermal energy was fed into the power plant's heat exchanger. Electricity production and feeding into the Egyptian power grid started in June 2011. According to the company Solar Millennium, the output of the solar field has so far been significantly (8%) above expectations.

In the fall of 2010, the US government approved the construction of a large solar power plant in California. The company originally wanted to build the world's largest solar energy location with a total of four solar thermal systems with a total output of around 1000 megawatts. The project was to be built in the Mojave Desert near Blythe . The company had to involve further investors and state subsidies in the financing. On April 18, 2011, US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu had offered the project company a "conditional commitment" for loan guarantees of $ 2.1 billion. This loan guarantee was lost when the company switched from solar thermal to photovoltaic. The project was sold to the company Solarhybrid (which has been insolvent since 2012).

share

The shares have been listed on the open market in Germany since July 27, 2005 . They are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the automatic trading systems Xetra and Nasdaq . The price rose from an entry price of EUR 10 to over EUR 45 in autumn 2007. After a low of EUR 6.25 at the beginning of March 2009, the share again reached a high of EUR 45 on January 11, 2010. At the end of March 2010, the share fell - partly because of later refuted criticisms of the balance sheet and announced resignations from the Board of Management - to around 18 euros.

As of October 31, 2010, there were 12,500,000 shares issued. 10% of these were held by members of the company's executive bodies; 40% were in the hands of institutional investors. The remaining 50% of the shares were in free float . Equity as of October 31, 2010 was EUR 127.2 million.

On November 3, 2010, the Swiss investment company iEnergy AG u. a. Solar Millennium shareholders up to one million shares in their 50% subsidiary Smart Grids AG (previously: BRG Vermögensverwaltung AG) for exchange. This offer would have arithmetically led to a participation in the share capital of Solar Millennium AG of a maximum of 2.3%. Solar Millennium published a statement on this offer. The shareholders' association WeserStrom issued a warning on November 12, 2010 against accepting the offer, as it was associated with risks. In fact, only around 63,000 Smart Grids shares were issued in this swap. Similar exchange offers were made on August 30 and September 6, 2011. However, the shares of Smart Grids AG remained largely stable, while the shares of Solar Millennium fell sharply at the beginning of October 2011. IEnergy AG also made such exchange offers to shareholders in numerous other public companies, such as the Chinese solar company Yingli .

Finally, on October 11, 2011, it was revealed that the company's share prices had been manipulated upwards. On October 14, 2011, the XETRA share price fell to a historic low of EUR 1.09. The suspicion of insider trading by a former employee of the supervisory board and the disputes over the former CEO Utz Claassen as well as the end of the US involvement had a negative effect on confidence on the stock exchange.

With the announcement of the bankruptcy petition on December 21, 2011, the share sank into the Pennystock range .

Others

The company's fiscal year was not in sync with the calendar year, but ran from November 1st to October 31st.

From January 1, 2011 to October 6, 2011, Christoph Wolff was the CEO. His predecessors as chairmen of the board were Thomas Mayer and Utz Claassen . The other board members were Christian Beltle, Oliver Blamberger and Jan Withag.

On October 6, 2011, the company announced:

  • CEO Christoph Wolff is resigning at his own request.
  • Jan Withag appointed as new CEO.
  • Marc Van Herreweghe becomes a member of the supervisory board.

About two weeks earlier, founder Hannes Kuhn had resigned from the supervisory board and left the company.

Legal dispute with ex-boss Claassen

Utz Claassen, who had received an entry bonus of nine million euros as CEO, ended his work at Solar Millennium in 2010 after only 74 days. Claassen accused the group of being deliberately misled in the contract negotiations with Solar Millennium. Since then, the group has been demanding the repayment of the nine-million-euro sign-up bonus. Claassen, on the other hand, insisted on the legality of his termination and bonus and again sued for damage to his reputation and for payment of damages and a severance payment of around seven million euros.

In April 2012, Claassen sued a court in California for $ 265 million in damages. He justified his lawsuit with alleged damage to reputation by company representatives.

Suspicion of insider trading

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is investigating Solar Millennium's allegation of insider trading in the company's shares. According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , company founder Hannes Kuhn is said to have bought shares before Claassen's commitment caused the share price to jump.

Major holdings

With the sale of the stake in Andasol 3 (26%) to MAN Ferrostaal on July 12, 2012, the last stake also expired.

Former holdings:

Technology subsidiaries:
Project companies (selection):
  • Milenio Solar Desarrollo de Proyectos SL, Spain (100%)
  • Ibersol Kraftwerks GmbH, Spain (100%)
  • Murciasol-1 Planta Solar Térmica SL, Spain (50%)
  • Termosolar de Albacete SL, Spain (34%)
  • Inner Mongolia STP Development Co. Ltd., China (50%)
Participations:
  • Solar Millennium Invest AG (100%)
  • Andasol Verwaltungs GmbH (100%)
Power plant construction:
  • Solar Trust of America LLC (70%) - Subsidiary in the USA (joint venture with MAN Ferrostaal )

Web links

 Wikinews: Solar Millennium  - in the news

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Solar Millennium AG - key figures. In: solarmillennium.de. Retrieved December 24, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Solar Millennium shares lose almost 60 percent of their value - Spiegel Online, Aug. 2011
  3. ↑ Solar Millennium AG and solarhybrid AG agree to take over power plant projects in the USA . solarmillennium.de. October 6, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  4. ↑ Solar company: Solar Millennium stops borrowing . Wiwo.de . September 24, 2011. Accessed December 24, 2011.
  5. ↑ Solar Millennium AG, December 21, 2011: Attorney Volker Böhm appointed preliminary insolvency administrator. Accessed: January 29, 2012
  6. ↑ Power plant developer Solar Millennium is broke Welt Online, December 21, 2011
  7. ↑ Solar Millennium AG, February 28, 2012: Insolvency proceedings opened for Solar Millennium AG. Accessed: March 5, 2012
  8. ↑ PV-Magazine.de: New details on the bankruptcy of Solar Millennium , June 25, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.solarmillennium.de/deutsch/presse/pressemitteilungen/insolvenzverwalter-aid-25-millionen-an-glubiger-aus.html
  10. ↑ Solar Millennium: Creditors receive a further down payment. In: www.photovoltaik.eu. August 7, 2019, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  11. ↑ See Andasol and German technology in the parabolic trough power plant Andasol 1 http://www.energie-experten.org/
  12. ^ Andasol I - the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe BINE Information Service, 07/2008
  13. ↑ Andasol 3 solar power plant produces environmentally friendly energy for the first time. Solar Millennium press release, July 18, 2011
  14. ↑ German consortium inaugurates Andasol 3 solar thermal power plant. Press release from Solar Millennium, September 30, 2011
  15. ↑ Solar Millennium wins Energy Globe Award Solar Millennium press release, May 27, 2008
  16. ↑ Solar Millennium AG sells further shares in the Spanish power plant project Ibersol Solar Millennium press release, November 3, 2010
  17. ↑ Solar Millennium AG and OHL Industrial take over the planned Spanish 50 megawatt Arenales power plant, Solar Millennium press release, April 13, 2011
  18. ↑ Ibersol solar power plant on the brink of ( Memento of 15 November 2011 at the Internet Archive ) Financial Times Germany, November 13th 2011
  19. ↑ Successful start in Egypt: Solar field of the hybrid power plant Kuraymat exceeds expectations Press release of Solar Millennium, September 22, 2011
  20. ↑ Blythe solar power plant project on the home straight: Obama administration offers conditional commitment for a USD 2.1 billion loan guarantee , Solar Millennium press release, April 18, 2011
  21. ↑ Medium-sized company buys prestige object from Solar Millennium ( Memento of October 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Financial Times Deutschland, October 10, 2011
  22. ↑ Bond prospectus PDF version ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), August 2, 2006
  23. ↑ Statement from Solar Millennium AG on the exchange offer from iEnergy AG Press release from Solar Millennium, November 8, 2010
  24. ↑ WeserStrom Cooperative. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Announcement on the Solar Millennium exchange offer ./. Smart Grids AG
  26. ↑ Stock market manipulation: This is how 21 companies were victims. Press release Goldman Morgenstern & Partners, October 11, 2011
  27. ↑ Supervisory Board appoints Dr. Christoph Wolff as CEO and Dr. Jan Withag as member of the board of directors Press release of Solar Millennium, October 19, 2010
  28. ↑ The supervisory board decides to change the chairmanship and supervisory board of Solar Millennium AG. Solar Millennium press release, October 6, 2011
  29. ↑ Hannes Kuhn declares his resignation from the supervisory board, Solar Millennium press release, September 26, 2011
  30. ↑ Georg Weishaupt: Why did Utz Claassen really leave? In: Handelsblatt. August 25, 2011, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Utz Claassen is suing Solar Millennium for damages. In: Der Spiegel. April 3, 2012, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Markus Balser, Uwe Ritzer: Suspicion of insider trading at Solar Millennium. In: www.sueddeutsche.de. August 16, 2011, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Bankruptcy: 36 million for solar millennium investors. In: www.handelsblatt.com. July 12, 2012, accessed January 13, 2020 .