China’s Trony Solar Files for IPO

Trony Solar is seeking to raise up to $200 million through an initial public offering in the United States.

The company wants to be listed under the symbol "TRO" on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday.

The company hasn't disclosed how many American depositary shares it plans to offer, or the pricing.

Trony's filing came about a week after another solar company, Specialized Technology Resources (STR) in Connecticut, said it intends to raise up to $212.2 million.

The U.S. market hasn't seen a solar IPO for more than a year.

Trony makes amorphous-silicon solar panels, and had the manufacturing capacity of 115 megawatts per year by the end of August this year, said its SEC filing. Its manufacturing cost was $1.15 per watt for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year. From June to September, the company lowered the cost to $1.09 per watt.

The company began production in 2006 and focused on the off-grid market. It's expanding to on-grid market as well. A recent on-grid project that used Trony's panels was a 1-megawatt array in South Korea.

The company generated RMB 451.5 million for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year, up from RMB 272.8 million in the 2008 fiscal year, and $26.2 million in the 2007 fiscal year.

Trony posted RMB 164.9 million in net income for the fiscal year ending June 30 this year. Net income was RMB 85.5 million for fiscal 2008, and RMB 5.2 million for fiscal 2007.

For the three month between June and September this year, Trony posted a net income of RMB 72.5 million on a revenue of RMB 254.6 million. Those represented an 81.1 percent jump in revenue and 61.5 percent growth in net income from the same period a year ago, the company said.