It is amazing how the biggest US companies and investors are being made to look like fools by Chinese frauds which have managed to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from their investors. Caterpillar was made to look stupid when it reported a huge write down, after acquiring a coal equipment supplier in China. Now Trony Solar which is the biggest Chinese thin film producer has been found to be a fraud as well. Intel Capital which was one of the biggest investors in the company seems to not have done due diligence as well. Thin Film Solar technology has almost been decimated by crystalline solar technology advancements. While the technology has the potential to come back into contention later, current thin film companies are dying like flies.
Read more about my views on Caterpillar.
The company had done an IPO in HK after failing to get listed in the US because of poor market conditions. Now the shares have been halted after its audit committee resigned. Its good that it was not listed in the US market, otherwise share of even good Chinese solar stocks would have been battered by the fraud news. Trony Solar used custom made Amorphous Silicon Equipment to produce a-Si thin film solar panels for the Chinese off grid market. The only surprising thing is that how did the fraud last so long, given that the solar market has been mired in a prolonged downturn for a long time.
Solar companies have been frequently found to be guilty of accounting transgressions. LDK Solar fought allegations for a long time, Canadian solar had to restate accounts, while Sunpower was also found guilty of misrepresentation. However, this fraud looks much more serious and I think Trony is unlikely to recover from this.
Google+China-based silicon thin-film manufacturer, Trony Solar which had its shares halted on the Hong Kong stock exchange due to accounting anomalies last year, said in a stock market filing that its audit committee dealing with the accounting issues had resigned. Trony Solar had been loss making through the 2012 scheduled financial reporting period and had posted losses in through the second-half of 2011, due to severe pricing pressure and weak market demand for its wide range of thin-film substrates and module.
