Aleo solar's shares soar as Bosch makes €46M bid

Shares of Oldenburg, Germany-based aleo solar (ETR:AS1) were up 32.3 percent at the close of trading today at €8.97 ($12.92) after Stuttgart, Germany's Robert Bosch made an unsolicited takeover bid.

Bosch offered €46 million ($65 million) for a controlling, 39.4 percent stake in aleo solar, the parent company of the aleo solar group, which develops and manufactures solar modules using mono- and multicrystalline solar cells in Prenzlau, Germany, and Santa Maria de Palautordera, Spain.

Bosch proposed the cash-for-stock transaction at €9 per share.

Aleo said the deal fit into the company's long-term strategy, noting that some of its shareholders have already signed agreements with Bosch to sell their shares. The acquisition is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Bosch is growing its rooftop solar division, also closing a deal today to acquire the shares owned by majority shareholders in Johanna Solar Technology, based in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany.

Aleo solar owns 17 percent of Johanna's shares and signed a deal in 2007 to license distribution rights for up to 80 percent of its copper, indium, gallium, sulphur and selenium (CIGS-Se) thin-film solar modules (see Johanna Solar CIGSSe modules to be distributed by aleo). Johanna began manufacturing thin film solar modules in November 2008.

Johanna officials said that having Bosch as a strategic majority shareholder would help the company further develop and deploy its technology.

In June, Johanna and IFE were jointly awarded a contract to build a CIGSSe thin film factory for China’s Sunvim Group in the Chinese province of Shandong (see Sunvim changes investment strategy from textiles to solar).

In June 2008, Bosch made a €546.4 million majority takeover bid for Erfurt, Germany-based ersol Solar Energy (see Bosch's €546.4 million bid for ersol).

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