REC Silicon – Close of the Sale of the Yulin JV Shares
Moses Lake, Washington USA – December 7, 2023: REC Silicon Pte. Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of REC Silicon ASA (“REC Silicon”), closed the sale of its 15% equity interest in the Shaanxi Non-Ferrous Tian Hong REC Silicon Materials Co., Ltd joint venture (“Yulin JV”).
All regulations and government approvals in China for the transaction have been completed. As previously disclosed, REC Silicon expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately $130M, which amount takes into account the payment of taxes and duties within China; however, such proceeds will be reduced by customary transaction costs such as legal and other consultancy fees. This sale will generate a non-recurring gain for the company in 2023. The purchase price was based upon a third-party appraisal of the valuation of the Yulin JV of approximately RMB 6.8 billion, implying gross proceeds before transaction costs of approximately RMB 1 billion for REC Silicon’s 15% share. The company is in the process of evaluating options for the best use of the proceeds from the sale.
“REC Silicon is pleased to close the sale of its interest in the Yulin JV. This sale will not only strengthen the company’s financial position but will also allow us to continue to focus our efforts on our US assets, particularly our recently started High Purity Granular polysilicon from the Moses Lake facility, a key piece of the development of a solar value chain in the US, along with investments in our gases business at the Butte facility to support the growth of the Semiconductor industry so that we will be in a strong position to take advantage of opportunities presented by significant macro trends, government policies and our location”, says Kurt Levens, CEO of REC Silicon.
The Yulin JV was created by REC Silicon and Shaanxi Non-Ferrous Tian Hong New Energy Co in 2014 to develop a greenfield production facility for silane gas, solar polysilicon utilizing REC Silicon’s fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology and electronic grade polysilicon.