Meyer Burger bags US$39 million to aid restructuring after DESRI deal collapse

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Meyer Burger call production facility in Thalheim. — Meyer Burger said it provides a “cash runway” to fund the business. Image: Meyer Burger.

Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger has secured US$39.48 million to support its restructuring operations and “stabilise” its business after its main US customer terminated its supply agreement.

Meyer Burger announced the bridge financing last week (6^th December) and said it provides a “cash runway” to fund the business while it renegotiates with its existing bondholders and other “relevant parties”.

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It is also renegotiating with D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), its former US customer which terminated a 5GW, five-year module supply agreement with Meyer Burger last month. The company said it has “engaged in constructive discussions with DESRI regarding terms of a new agreement”.

Franz Richter, Meyer Burger’s recently-appointed CEO, said: “We are committed to strengthening our relationship with DESRI, which, if successful, will underscore the quality of our technology and highlight our future potential in the US market.”

Meyer Burger produces heterojunction technology (HJT) modules, a point of technological difference compared with most of the solar manufacturing industry, which has broadly moved from PERC to tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) technology.

The US$39.48 million bridge financing will be drawn in multiple tranches and matures on January 17, 2025. Meyer Burger said it expected the first US$19.7 million to be drawn immediately. The lenders (a number of financial institutions) were already bondholders in Meyer Burger.

A difficult 2024

Meyer Burger posted net losses of US$365 million in its H1 2024 financial results, a fivefold increase from the same period in 2023. The results were delayed and showed a significant decline in sales of its HJT modules.

This followed the departure of former CEO Gunter Erfurt in September and around 300 job cuts as part of efforts to “ensure profitability”. Richter was appointed CEO less than a week after Erfurt’s resignation.

Upon resigning, Erfurt repeated his long-standing criticisms of the solar manufacturing environment in the EU and the apparent lack of support Brussels has provided the sector.

In the face of difficult economics in Europe, Meyer Burger chose to establish module and cell capacity in the US. June 2024 saw it begin HJT module production at its facility in Goodyear, Arizona. Erfurt told PV Tech Premium the same month that “history has proven [the company] right” for moving its manufacturing operations from Europe to the US.

However, in August the company cancelled its planned 2GW solar cell production facility in Colorado, US, claiming it was “no longer economically viable”. It still has cell capacity in Germany.

Meyer Burger was one of the petitioners in the US’ ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation into solar cell products coming to the US from four Southeast Asian companies. With its fellow petitioners, it claims that subsidies for largely Chinese companies in the region are leading to unfairly low prices on imports to the US and harming US manufacturing firms.

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