SunEdison Inc., the world's largest renewable energy developer, is going to file for bankruptcy in New York as soon as the evening of April 17. The filing is being made nine months after the energy giant's market value has reached $10 billion. Ben Harborne, a SunEdison spokesman, has declined to make any comment.
The probable bankruptcy filing will represent the fall of a former Wall Street darling, familiar to investors betting in the renewable energy sector. SunEdison's rapid, debt burdened expansion with solar and wind energy plants across the globe has finally proved to be unsustainable.
Reuters reports the market value of the company as of Friday stands at $117 million. However, its source in SunEdison doubts that the timing of the chapter 11 filing hasn't been finalized yet and may differ due to unavoidable circumstances.
The energy giant has a total long and short term debt of $11.7 billion as of September 30. It has reached agreement for bankruptcy financing with first and second-lien lenders, reports Bloomberg quoting a person, familiar with the matter but claims for anonymity since the matter is still private.
SunEdison has been negotiating with creditors to determine the assets to be sold-off in bankruptcy. The company has been trying to sell assets for months following its liquidity crunch. The Missouri based company requires around $310 million to remain active in business. It estimates a cash shortfall of $260 million by mid June of the current year. The solar energy plant provider has expected securing the required financing through pledging assets, but eventually failed, according to a report published in Fortune. Challenges for the company have started to originate during the middle of the last year following persuasions for acquiring Vivint Solar Inc. Even its initiative to go for an initial public offering (IPO) against stake in TerraForm Global has also attracted criticism. TerraForm Global represents as a 'yieldco' unit for SunEdison, which has created to hold renewable energy assets. In addition to TerraForm Global, SunEdison's other yieldco, TerraForm Power, has hired financial and legal advisors in order to prepare and develop contingency plans. The plans will help those yieldcos to determine their paths if SunEdison files for bankruptcy, informs a spokesman for the yieldcos on Friday.
