China solar panel maker Jinko to sell unit for 4.3 billion yuan

CHINA’S Jinko Solar said it would sell its unit for 4.3 billion yuan (S$822.2 million) to buyers including a government-linked fund, as one of the world’s major solar panel producers looks to cut costs and improve efficiency.

The sale of Jinko Solar’s unit in the western region of Xinjiang to Ziyang Major Industry Equity Investment Fund, backed by authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan, and to Dong Shihong, chairman at Suzhou Shijing Environmental Technology, is pending an antitrust review by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, Jinko Solar said in a filing on Wednesday (May 24).

The sale of Xinjiang Jinko Solar will lower Jinko’s operational costs, increase its production efficiency and optimise its facility mix, Jinko Solar’s indirect controlling shareholder JinkoSolar Holding said in a separate statement.

The Xinjiang unit reported an unaudited net profit of 139.9 million yuan (S$26.8 million) in the first three month this year and an audited net profit of 152.1 million yuan in 2022, according to Jinko Solar’s filing.

The unit’s unaudited net assets stood at 1.1 billion yuan as of end March, said the filing.

Ziyang Major Industry Equity Investment Fund’s main investor is an investment group set up by the state asset regulating authority in the city of Ziyiang and the provincial finance department in Sichuan, where Ziyang is based, the filing showed. REUTERS