Intelligence Brief
Victorian company goes into voluntary administration
21 September 2009
Australian company Solar Systems recently went into voluntary administration.
The Administrators, including ones from PricewaterhouseCoopers, are undertaking an immediate assessment of the operations and financial position of the companies, including Solar Systems, Solar Power Stations Australia and Solar Systems Generation, with a view to continuing the operations on a reduced scale in order to restructure and sell the business as a going concern.
The Melbourne-based company, which was to build a 154 MW solar farm near the Mildura region, went into voluntary administration as it failed to attract another investor for the $420 million project. The project was expected to generate up to 950 jobs at the peak of construction. Late last year, the company shared that the first stage of the project is due to be completed in 2010, with full commissioning expected in 2013.
According to media reports, Solar Systems could not raise the extra $50 million to $100 million needed to keep it afloat. The Australian reported that the company was unable to attract new finance and energy company TRUenergy decided to cut its losses.
TRUenergy had provided $40 million to Solar Systems in return for a 20% ownership interest last year. That time it was also shared that TRUenergy will contribute $7 million to the development of a 2MW heliostat CPV pilot plant, subsequently investing up to $285 million to build the remaining stages of the project, and adding to $129.5 million of Federal and Victorian Government funds already earmarked for the project.
