GCL-Poly Buying 68 Percent Stake in Same Time for HK$1.4 Billion
GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. (3800), the world’s biggest maker of polysilicon, plans to buy a 68 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed Same Time Holdings Ltd. for HK$1.44 billion ($186 million).
GCL-Poly will buy 360 million new Same Time shares at HK$4 each, and will seek a waiver from the rule requiring it to make a buyout offer, according to a joint filing by the two companies to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
Same Time plans to shift its focus to renewable-energy projects including solar plants, according to the statement. GCL-Poly owns existing and planned photovoltaic power stations in the U.S., South Africa and China with combined capacity of more than 2 gigawatts, according to its website.
People are speculating that GCL-Poly “may inject its non-key assets such as its solar-power plant business into Same Time,” Karl Liu, a Hong Kong-based analyst from Bank of China International Ltd. said by phone yesterday, before the filing.
Shares of both companies will resume trading in Hong Kong today. GCL-Poly fell 1.5 percent to HK$2.62 on Feb. 12, shaving its increase in 2014 to 9.2 percent. Same Time gained 3.2 percent to HK$13.50, bringing its increase this year to 23 percent.
The directors of Hong Kong-based Same Time plan to resign when the deal is completed and GCL-Poly will nominate new board members, according to yesterday’s filing. Same Time is now a maker of printed circuit boards and consumer electronics.
GCL-Poly, based in Hong Kong, said in October that it was considering an investment of HK$1.8 billion in Same Time.
