PV Powered, Inc., the innovation leader in solar inverter reliability, performance and serviceability, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (AE) of Fort Collins, Colorado (NASDAQ:AEIS). The acquisition will bring together the two US-based industry leaders, whose combined technology and product platforms will create the broadest grid-tied inverter offering in the rapidly-growing solar photovoltaic market, spanning residential, commercial, and utility-scale solutions.
Under the agreement, Advanced Energy will acquire PV Powered for a purchase price of up to $90 million consisting of $50 million to be paid at closing in the form of $35 million in cash and $15 million in Advanced Energy’s common stock, as well as up to $40 million in a potential earn-out based on PV Powered’s full year 2010 financial results. Throughout 2010, PV Powered will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, continuing to sell and support its PV Powered branded inverters.
Advanced Energy anticipates sales of PV Powered’s inverter to contribute as much as $40-50 million to Advanced Energy’s 2010 revenue. Of that, they expect $30-35 million to come from sales to the commercial market and $10-15 million from the residential market. The company anticipates gross margins on these products to be in the range of 26-29 percent and have additional operating expenses of $3-4 million.
Founded in 2003 and based in Bend, PV Powered is a privately held company with approximately 90 employees and $21 million revenue in 2009.
PV Powered was recently selected to receive a Stage 2 award under the Solar Energy Grid Integration System (SEGIS) program by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The company is leading a team of recognized distributed energy and smart grid partners in developing innovations that increase energy harvest, reduce the cost of PV systems, and remove barriers to high levels of PV grid penetration.
“The employees and management of PV Powered are excited at the prospect of joining Advanced Energy,” said Gregg Patterson, chief executive officer of PV Powered. “Both organizations share a common mission to deliver the innovations our customers are asking for in efficiency, reliability and uptime that will maximize the 20+ year financial returns of solar projects. We look forward to delivering the combined synergies of two industry leading companies to our customers.”
PV Powered and Advanced Energy enjoy a collective history of industry-leading innovations, driven by a deep commitment to improving power conversion efficiency and inverter reliability. PV Powered was the first solar inverter company to design products that are tailored to the unique needs of the North American marketplace, with a rugged-purpose built construction, the widest operating temperature and voltage ranges; and the Smart Air Cooling system that delivers unprecedented inverter life and uptime performance.
PV Powered’s commercial inverters were designed from the ground up for a 20+ year operating life and offer the industry’s first and most comprehensive 20 year extended warranty.
PV Powered’s commercial product portfolio ranges in size from 30kW to 1MW including the flagship 260kW product with industry leading 97 percent CEC efficiency and the widest DC operating voltage range in the industry. Its portfolio will immediately complement AE’s transformer-less inverters including its 250kW, 333kW and 500kW products.
“The combination of Advanced Energy and PV Powered will bring together two complimentary technology platforms and provide customers with the broadest range of solutions for residential to utility-scale solar installations,” said Hans Betz, chief executive officer of Advanced Energy. “We believe this acquisition will firmly place Advanced Energy at the heart of the emerging and fast growing solar inverter market.”
After the acquisition is finalized, PV Powered will operate under the current management team as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Advanced Energy continuing to sell and support its full line of products from its Bend facility.
