RECALL: 900 Outdoor Lighting
Fixtures
From Acuity’s American Electric Lighting. Details.
BANKRUPTCY: Catalina Lighting
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according
to the Feb. 26 South
Florida Business Journal. From the report:
“Catalina’s bankruptcy attorney, Peter Levitt at Shutts
& Bowen in Miami, said the company has entered into an
asset purchase agreement with Evolution Lighting, an affiliate of Boyne
Capital Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm.
“Catalina plans to sell all assets through the bankruptcy process to Evolution
or a higher bidder.”
Now Available: Shares In Generac
According to a Feb. 11 Associated Press filing, the initial public
offering of stock in Generac Holdings finally got done last month—but at a reduced
price and shares offered.
Where the company had hoped to sell more than 20 million shares,
underwriters found takers for 18.8 million. While pricing expectations had been
indicated in a $15-$17 range for each share, the deal got done at $13.
Closing price on March 5 = $13.10. The shares trade (on the New
York Stock Exchange) with the symbol GNRC.
From the 224-page amended S-1 form, filed with the Securities
& Exchange Commission (documents such as this used to go by the name “red
herring”), here’s the portion on the company’s ownership:
In November 2006, affiliates of CCMP Capital
Advisors, or CCMP, together with affiliates of Unitas Capital, or Unitas, and
members of our management, formed Generac and, through Generac, acquired all
of the capital stock of Generac Power Systems, or Generac Power Systems.
After this offering, affiliates of CCMP will
collectively own approximately
58.9% and affiliates of Unitas will collectively
own approximately 4.6% of our outstanding common stock. [TedMag note: It
is not clear whether these percentages have increased with the selling to the
public of a reduced number of shares.]
CCMP is a leading global private equity firm
specializing in buyouts and growth equity investments in companies ranging from
$500 million to more than $3 billion in size. CCMP's founders have invested
over $12 billion since 1984, which includes their activities at J.P. Morgan
Partners (a private equity division of JPMorgan Chase & Company) and its
predecessor firms.
CCMP was formed in August 2006 when the buyout
and growth equity investment professionals of J.P. Morgan Partners separated
from JPMorgan Chase & Company to commence operations as an independent firm.
CCMP’s latest fund, CCMP Capital Investors II closed in September 2007 with
commitments of approximately $3.38 billion.
The foundation of CCM’s investment approach
is to leverage the combined strengths of its deep industry expertise and proprietary
global network of relationships by focusing on five targeted industries (Consumer,
Retail and Services; Energy; Healthcare Infrastructure; Industrials; and Media
and Telecom).
Green Supplier Briefs
AETI—American Electric Technologies
says it now offers “the wind energy industry’s first switchgear solution designed
specifically to provide safer, more reliable, higher-performing wind farm operations.”
BOSCH GROUP—the company has partnered
with Sustainable Energy Technologies (Calgary, Alb., Canada), and is said (by
The Toronto Star) to be “eyeing Ontario as its continental launch pad.”
Bosch makes thin-film solar modules.
CLEAR SKIES SOLAR—will build a 324kW
solar power project on the ShopRite building (Metro Plaza, N.J.). It’s the second
2010 project with financing for the company.
CONFLUENCE SOLAR—this start-up company
(based in Hazelwood, Mo.) “will build a $200 million manufacturing and distribution
complex” in Clinton, Tenn. The 200,000-square-foot facility could employ 250
people, according to UPI; it will make “mono-crystal silicon ingots for PV solar
power generation.”
DUPONT—after pouring in $175 million,
the company said its has completed “multiphase expansion” of its photovoltaic
component (Tedlar films) operation. That makes $295 million all told that’s
been invested in the past year.
ECD + ENFINITY—Energy Conservation
Devices and Enfinity Corp. will “collaborate on the development of a 10MW portfolio
of rooftop solar installations in Ontario, Canada.”
EMERSON—the company’s “state-of-the-art,
energy-efficienct Global Data Center” (St. Louis) won LEED Gold certification
from the USGBC.
Ener1—this company makes high-performance
lithium-ion batteries, according to Auto Business News. Now, it will
enter the utility-scale energy storage market.
FIRST SOLAR—had revenues in FY08
of $1.25 billion. Had revenues in FY09 (ended Dec. 26, 2009) of $2.07 billion.
Forecasts FY10 revenues of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion.
FLUKE CORPORATION—will get $1.4 milllion
of federal stimulus funds “to ensure the Smart Grid is reliable and stable and
ready to accept power from renewable resources.”
FUELCELL ENERGY— a Feb. 27 Hartford
Courant report claimed the company “has won so much business from Connecticut
utilities that it plans to expand its Torrington factory operations, which now
employ 220.” It’s not totally good news: “The company needs to borrow a little
more than $200 milllion to fulfill the orders,” the newspaper reported.
GENERAL COMPRESSION—more than $17 milllion in money came into this company’s coffers, some
of it from Duke Energy and U.S. Renewables. The plan: General Compression will
build and install its first “full-scale” advanced energy storage unit this year,
according to CleanEdge.com.
GT SOLAR INTERNATIONAL—said it has signed more than $200 million in new contracts. The company
provides equipment, process technology, and turnkey manufacturing services for
the solar power industry, according to CleanEdge.com.
HONEYWELL—added “time-of-use utility
price schedule programming capability” to its Prestige programmable thermostat.
This is all about The Smart Grid.
3M—has acquired an interest in Energy Inc., maker
of “The Energy Detective” (aka “TED”)—which “collects energy data and lets users
[homeowners] track it online,” according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business
Journal.
PENTADYNE + EMERSON/LIEBERT—a data center facility in Irvine, Calif., will make use of 3MW of the
company’s flywheel energy storage systems. The 16-unit order, a release said,
came from Emerson Network Power, “which markets the Pentadyne system as the
Liebert FS.” The 16 units will be used with four 750kVA Liebert UPS units.
PETRA SOLAR—raised $40 milllion from
various private equity investors, according to RenewGridMag.com. Petra makes
the SunWave system and the Smart Energy Module platform. The new money will
be used “to expand its customer base, with plans to hire another 30 executive
and professional employees immediately.”
PLUG POWER—said it had 786 total
orders in 2009, of which 584 were for GenDrive units (which power forklift trucks);
204 units orders came in Q4. Ambitious company plans are for sale of 7,200 to
9,400 units over the years 2010-2012, according to The Business Review (Albany,
N.Y.).
POWER-ONE—said in January that it
had delivered a 2.5MW inverter “for use in large off-shore and on-shore wind
turbines” to an unnamed U.S. wind turbine manufacturer.
READY SOLAR + ENPHASE—Ready Solar issued a Feb. 9 release saying it will now use microinverters
from Enphase Energy “for all of its preassembled Solar in a Box systems” in
2010.
SAMSUNG—the South Korean company
“will install 2.5GW of wind and solar generation” in Ontario, Canada, “and build
manufacturing facilities to support the effort,” according to IEEE Spectrum.
S&C ELECTRIC—is partnering, according
to RenewGridMag.com, with International Battery, in work to deploy S&C’s
Community Energy Storage system for American Electric Power in northeast-central
Ohio.
SHEC ENERGY + EMERSON—an agreement between WHEC Energy and Emerson Process Management involves
bringing new solar thermal power-generation facilities online. SHEC will use
Emerson’s “advanced automation services to maximize the efficiency and reliability”
of the plants, and “to help SHEC bring the cost of solar power in line with
conventional sources of electricity.”
UNITED SOLAR OVONIC/ECD—obtained $13.3 milllion in stimulus dollars to support its efforts in
making thin-film solar electric modules and laminates. USO is an affiliate of
Energy Conversion Devices. The money will be used as part of the financing for
a $42 milllion investment in USO’s facility in Auburn Hills, Mich.
ZENERGY POWER/HONEYWELL—Honeywell will supply chemicals that Zenergy will use to make superconductors,
according to Reuters, “paving the way for what [Zenergy] hopes will be lower
production costs and cheaper wind power generation.”
© 2012 The Electrical Distributor. All rights reserved.