MEMC to develop solar plants with $200M SunEdison acquisition

St. Peters, Mo.-based MEMC Electronic Materials said today it is acquiring privately held SunEdison in a deal valued at $200 million.

MEMC (NYSE:WFR) provides silicon wafers to the semiconductor and solar industries (see MEMC, Gintech amend solar supply deal). Beltsville, Md.-based SunEdison develops solar power projects and is considered a major solar energy services provider in North America (see SunEdison to install 10MW of solar in Florida). The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“This acquisition will provide a third engine of growth for MEMC,” said MEMC CEO Ahmad Chatila in a news release. “MEMC will now participate in the actual development of solar power plants and commercialization of clean energy, in addition to supplying the solar and semiconductor industries with our traditional silicon wafer products.”

Under the agreement, SunEdison security holders would be paid 70 percent in cash and 30 percent in MEMC stock. SunEdison has brought in more than $140 million in private equity funding and more than $30 million in debt financing.

Investors include Greylock Partners, HSH Nordbank, Applied Ventures, Black River Commodity Clean Energy Investment Fund, MissionPoint Capital Partner and Allco Renewable Energy. If SunEdison meets specific 2010 performance targets, there’s also an earn-out provision in the agreement for up to an additional $89 million of cash and stock.

The news came as MEMC beat Wall Street projections of $301 million, posting third quarter revenue of $310 million. However, the company suffered a loss of $64.6 million somewhat because of part of its Texas polysilicon facility being closed in September to repair damaged equipment.

MEMC’s stock was at $13.93 in afternoon trading today, down 9.72 percent.

In March, SunEdison raised $20 million in project financing from San Francisco-based Union Bank for a 1.7 megawatt ground-mounted solar project in Rifle, Colo., and another undisclosed project (see Solar sell-off accelerates).

SunEdison has built about 300 solar power plants with the capacity to generate 80 MW. It has more than 1.5 gigawatts of pipeline, backlog, and leads with partners, according to the release.

SunEdison is expected to continue to operate under its current name as a subsidiary of MEMC. SunEdison’s COO and CFO Carlos Domenech is to continue to lead SunEdison. After the acquisition closes, he is expected to be named MEMC’s executive vice president and president of SunEdison, reporting to Chatila.

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