Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Suntech Power (STP) jumped as much as 13.5% in early trading today after the company got an offer to buy assets.
So what: Shunfeng Photovoltaic International (potentially with the help of GCL Poly) has made a bid to buy the insolvent subsidiary Wuxi Suntech Power, which owns most of the company's manufacturing operations. The company put a deposit of $82 million down, but it's unclear from early reports exactly what price will be paid for the assets. The Wuxi Suntech subsidiary has $1.75 billion in debt, and it's unlikely a sale would be for more than pennies on the dollar, leaving equity holders with nothing.
Now what: Suntech has been trying to restructure for months, and this appears to be the first major bid to buy the company's most important assets. What investors need to keep in mind here is that shareholders are last in line for any money from selling assets. Chinese banks are owed billions in debt and, then, U.S. bondholders have a claim. Stockholders are last in line and, when it's all said and done, I doubt there will be anything left to fight over. In other words, this stock isn't worth buying today.
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