(Reuters) – Solar energy company SunPower said it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States and agreed to sell part of its business to Complete Solaria for $45 million in cash.
Shares of SunPower fell about 45% to 44 cents in pre-market trading Tuesday after the company listed its assets and liabilities in an amount of $1 billion to $10 billion in a filing with a Delaware bankruptcy court Monday night.
“While this bankruptcy process technically falls under Chapter 11 (restructuring) and not Chapter 7 (liquidation), it is in fact a liquidation of SunPower,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James.
Molchanov expects the asset sale process to be completed by the end of 2024, after which “SunPower, which was founded in 1985, will cease to exist.”
SunPower has endured a rough few quarters since its CEO left in February and that same month the company received a subpoena from the U.S. securities regulator regarding its accounting practices.
The crisis worsened last month when the company announced it would halt several activities, including the delivery of new products and the deactivation of lease and purchase agreements on the platform.
SunPower has indicated that it plans to continue the sale process for its remaining assets, after entering into a stalking horse agreement with California-based Complete Solaria to sell its Blue Raven Solar and New Homes businesses and non-installing dealer network.
A stalking horse bid is a starting bid or minimum accepted bid that other interested bidders must exceed if they want to purchase the asset or business.
SunPower acquired Blue Raven in 2021 for $165 million.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini Ganguli)
