A legal battle in London has revealed that a conglomerate controlled by Anil Ambani, the Indian telecoms tycoon, used a Mauritius-based fund to make covert investments in one of its own companies, triggering calls in India for a full investigation.
UK regulators have found that Mr Ambani’s Reliance Group, spanning interests from financial services to infrastructure, invested $250m in the offshore fund that in 2007 bought securities linked to one of the companies within the group, in violation of Indian law.
The complex chain of investments, long the subject of media speculation in India, is now at the centre of a disciplinary action brought by the UK’s Financial Services Authority against the former private bankers at UBS who set up the investment fund.
The long-running case has already established serious compliance failings at UBS, the Swiss bank whose flagship wealth management arm competes fiercely for the business of billionaires such as Mr Ambani. The bank paid an £8m fine in 2009 for control weaknesses on its “Asia II” private banking desk based in London, which dealt with “mega clients” such as Mr Ambani and several other Indian tycoons.
So far, only Mr Ambani’s group has been publicly identified as using this structure. But one Indian investor with knowledge of the vehicle claimed that as many as 25 Indian businessmen had used similar funds.
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Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sun setting on solar equipment industry; only to rise on stronger consolidated players
The solar-equipment industry is beginning a consolidation that’s already the biggest in at least two years as plunging prices for photovoltaic systems force weaker companies to team with competitors or close shop.
Mergers and acquisitions announced so far this year total $3.3 billion, up 33 percent from the $2.47 billion in all of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Evergreen Solar Inc. (ESLR) of the U.S. today set a Sept. 20 meeting for its creditors after seeking bankruptcy protection this month. German solar-panel maker Q-Cells SE (QCE) in July said it’s open to takeover bids.
Tumbling solar-cell prices are provoking deals. Their 42 percent drop in 2011, stemming from tougher Chinese competition and declining solar-energy incentives in Europe, contributed to California’s Sunpower Corp. (SPWRA) and Roth & Rau AG (R8R) of Germany agreeing to takeovers. Ascent Solar Inc. took a Chinese partner.
A sell-off in solar stocks has made acquisitions cheaper. The Bloomberg Industries Global Large Solar Index dropped 36 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 3.8 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in that period.
“The industry is ripe for consolidation,” Michael Schostak, director of business development and communications at Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ENER), a maker of thin-film solar laminates, said in an interview.
Adam Krop, an analyst at Ardour Capital Partners in New York, put Energy Conversion on his list of vulnerable companies. Aaron Chew, an analyst at New York-based Maxim Group LLC, named Daystar Technologies Inc. (DSTI) and Q-Cells.
Evergreen said it plans to sell itself at an auction. Hopewell Junction, New York-based cell maker SpectraWatt Inc. this month also filed for protection from creditors.
Q-Cells, once the world’s largest maker of solar cells, hired investment bank and bankruptcy adviser Houlihan Lokey to look at financing options, it said last week.
“It’s totally feasible that Q-Cells goes under,” Chew of the Maxim Group said in an interview. The company’s shares reached a record low Aug. 10 after forecasting a “three-digit million-euro” loss for the year.
Other German solar companies are struggling. Solon SE (SOO1) said on Aug. 16 that it will cut 15 percent of its jobs after inventory rose 45 percent in the first quarter to 160 million euros ($230 million) from a year earlier.
Roth & Rau, the German maker of solar-cell manufacturing equipment, agreed in April to a takeover by Swiss competitor Meyer Burger Technology AG, after first-quarter inventory more than tripled to 97 million euros.
Schostak of Energy Conversion said the most likely takeover targets offer commodity crystalline silicon products and that his company is talking to potential partners about integrating its flexible cells into products from roofing tiles to backpacks. He didn’t name the companies.
Daystar Technologies, a Milpitas, California-based maker of thin-film solar cells, is “in discussions” with potential investors to “provide financing, manufacturing capabilities or other opportunities,” Chief Financial Officer Chris Lail said in an interview.
Mergers and acquisitions announced so far this year total $3.3 billion, up 33 percent from the $2.47 billion in all of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Evergreen Solar Inc. (ESLR) of the U.S. today set a Sept. 20 meeting for its creditors after seeking bankruptcy protection this month. German solar-panel maker Q-Cells SE (QCE) in July said it’s open to takeover bids.
Tumbling solar-cell prices are provoking deals. Their 42 percent drop in 2011, stemming from tougher Chinese competition and declining solar-energy incentives in Europe, contributed to California’s Sunpower Corp. (SPWRA) and Roth & Rau AG (R8R) of Germany agreeing to takeovers. Ascent Solar Inc. took a Chinese partner.
A sell-off in solar stocks has made acquisitions cheaper. The Bloomberg Industries Global Large Solar Index dropped 36 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 3.8 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in that period.
“The industry is ripe for consolidation,” Michael Schostak, director of business development and communications at Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ENER), a maker of thin-film solar laminates, said in an interview.
Adam Krop, an analyst at Ardour Capital Partners in New York, put Energy Conversion on his list of vulnerable companies. Aaron Chew, an analyst at New York-based Maxim Group LLC, named Daystar Technologies Inc. (DSTI) and Q-Cells.
Evergreen said it plans to sell itself at an auction. Hopewell Junction, New York-based cell maker SpectraWatt Inc. this month also filed for protection from creditors.
Q-Cells, once the world’s largest maker of solar cells, hired investment bank and bankruptcy adviser Houlihan Lokey to look at financing options, it said last week.
“It’s totally feasible that Q-Cells goes under,” Chew of the Maxim Group said in an interview. The company’s shares reached a record low Aug. 10 after forecasting a “three-digit million-euro” loss for the year.
Other German solar companies are struggling. Solon SE (SOO1) said on Aug. 16 that it will cut 15 percent of its jobs after inventory rose 45 percent in the first quarter to 160 million euros ($230 million) from a year earlier.
Roth & Rau, the German maker of solar-cell manufacturing equipment, agreed in April to a takeover by Swiss competitor Meyer Burger Technology AG, after first-quarter inventory more than tripled to 97 million euros.
Schostak of Energy Conversion said the most likely takeover targets offer commodity crystalline silicon products and that his company is talking to potential partners about integrating its flexible cells into products from roofing tiles to backpacks. He didn’t name the companies.
Daystar Technologies, a Milpitas, California-based maker of thin-film solar cells, is “in discussions” with potential investors to “provide financing, manufacturing capabilities or other opportunities,” Chief Financial Officer Chris Lail said in an interview.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Let the epitaph of the human race not read “they died of thirst surrounded by water they could not see”
Most of the drinking water in Keene, N.H., flows from two reservoirs at an elevation several hundred feet above the city’s water treatment plant. It arrives there at a high pressure that needs to be reduced nearly tenfold for treatment. In February, Keene began using that excess water pressure to spin two turbines plugged into the pipe by a New York City startup called Rentricity, using small generators to make electricity from water pressure that was previously dissipated by a mechanical valve. “What we’re really trying to do is recover energy that’s just not being tapped into and use it to make [utilities] more efficient,” says Rentricity founder Frank Zammataro.
The 53-year-old former Merrill Lynch technology executive is one of dozens of entrepreneurs trying to capture so-called hydrokinetic power from moving water in rivers, oceans, or, in Rentricity’s case, pipes. Such projects are distinct from traditional hydroelectric power because they tap into existing flows, rather than dam rivers. Joe Sweet, a researcher at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation who co-authored a report on hydrokinetics last year, says the industry is young and “it hasn’t been really settled what’s going to be the best commercially applied technology.” Zammataro says the economics of Rentricity’s projects are more appealing than other types of clean energy because they can count on consistent and predictable water flows. The equipment has a 40-year life span, and energy savings will cover the cost in three to 16 years, depending on the size of the installation and the clean energy incentives in place, he adds.
Rentricity posted a small profit on revenue of almost $500,000 in 2010, Zammataro says. The 10-employee company doesn’t develop any unique technology. Instead, he says, Rentricity uses off-the-shelf equipment such as pumps that can run in reverse to keep project costs low. The generator in Keene can create about 62 kilowatts of electricity at peak flow, about the same amount of energy needed to power roughly 50 homes. It cost the city about $500,000, about half of which was paid for by a federal clean-energy grant under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Kürt Blomquist, Keene’s public works director. The energy savings will pay for the city’s investment in eight to 11 years, he says.
In addition to the Keene site, Rentricity has a 30-kilowatt installation in western Pennsylvania and three more projects in development. The largest, a 325-kilowatt installation at a water transfer station in Palos Verdes, Calif., is scheduled to start operating later this year. Zammataro says the company can harvest energy anywhere a water system needs to reduce pressure, including in pipelines beneath the streets, at transfer stations, or at treatment plants for clean or waste water. The electricity can power the water system’s needs or be delivered back to the grid.
By targeting pipelines rather than natural water bodies, Rentricity avoids much of the red tape that other hydrokinetic companies encounter. No fish swim through the water pipes it taps, though Zammataro says he still has to get projects approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
His biggest hurdle is convincing wary water managers that his systems won’t interfere with their operations. Zammataro has testified twice before the New York City Council, recently joining executives from three other energy startups on June 20, to urge the city to evaluate the energy potential of its water system.
Zammataro understands why water utilities hesitate. “This is a conservative lot for all the right reasons,” he says. Still, vast water systems like New York’s, mostly powered by gravity pulling water from sources upstate, represent tremendous opportunity for hydrokinetic outfits. Keene’s water treatment plant processes 6 million gallons a day at peak times. New York’s water, Zammataro estimates, might provide up to 1 percent of the city’s energy needs: “Over 1 billion gallons of water a day flow through this city,” he says.
The 53-year-old former Merrill Lynch technology executive is one of dozens of entrepreneurs trying to capture so-called hydrokinetic power from moving water in rivers, oceans, or, in Rentricity’s case, pipes. Such projects are distinct from traditional hydroelectric power because they tap into existing flows, rather than dam rivers. Joe Sweet, a researcher at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation who co-authored a report on hydrokinetics last year, says the industry is young and “it hasn’t been really settled what’s going to be the best commercially applied technology.” Zammataro says the economics of Rentricity’s projects are more appealing than other types of clean energy because they can count on consistent and predictable water flows. The equipment has a 40-year life span, and energy savings will cover the cost in three to 16 years, depending on the size of the installation and the clean energy incentives in place, he adds.
Rentricity posted a small profit on revenue of almost $500,000 in 2010, Zammataro says. The 10-employee company doesn’t develop any unique technology. Instead, he says, Rentricity uses off-the-shelf equipment such as pumps that can run in reverse to keep project costs low. The generator in Keene can create about 62 kilowatts of electricity at peak flow, about the same amount of energy needed to power roughly 50 homes. It cost the city about $500,000, about half of which was paid for by a federal clean-energy grant under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Kürt Blomquist, Keene’s public works director. The energy savings will pay for the city’s investment in eight to 11 years, he says.
In addition to the Keene site, Rentricity has a 30-kilowatt installation in western Pennsylvania and three more projects in development. The largest, a 325-kilowatt installation at a water transfer station in Palos Verdes, Calif., is scheduled to start operating later this year. Zammataro says the company can harvest energy anywhere a water system needs to reduce pressure, including in pipelines beneath the streets, at transfer stations, or at treatment plants for clean or waste water. The electricity can power the water system’s needs or be delivered back to the grid.
By targeting pipelines rather than natural water bodies, Rentricity avoids much of the red tape that other hydrokinetic companies encounter. No fish swim through the water pipes it taps, though Zammataro says he still has to get projects approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
His biggest hurdle is convincing wary water managers that his systems won’t interfere with their operations. Zammataro has testified twice before the New York City Council, recently joining executives from three other energy startups on June 20, to urge the city to evaluate the energy potential of its water system.
Zammataro understands why water utilities hesitate. “This is a conservative lot for all the right reasons,” he says. Still, vast water systems like New York’s, mostly powered by gravity pulling water from sources upstate, represent tremendous opportunity for hydrokinetic outfits. Keene’s water treatment plant processes 6 million gallons a day at peak times. New York’s water, Zammataro estimates, might provide up to 1 percent of the city’s energy needs: “Over 1 billion gallons of water a day flow through this city,” he says.
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