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HL:Silicon producer Timminco gets supply agreement: shares soar 49 per cent@(Canadian Press DataFile Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TORONTO _ Solar panel grade silicon producer Timminco Ltd. (TSX:TIM) said Monday it has reached a supply agreement with German solar cell producer Q-Cells SE that contemplates delivery of 100 tonnes for 2009, with more to come up until 2013. The agreement, which sent the company's shares up 49 per cent Monday, replaces an earlier five-year agreement signed in 2008. Timminco said it will negotiate by the end of this year further volumes, pricing and other terms for deliveries between 2010 and 2013 "in the context of prevailing solar industry market conditions." "Q-Cells is a valued customer of Timminco." said Rene Boisvert, president of Becancour Silicon, Timminco's subsidiary. "We look forward to continuing to build a long term relationship with Q-Cells based upon application of our UMG-Si technology." Timminco will also return an outstanding deposit of about euro8.9 million (C$14 million) to Q-Cells. The companies agreed to a repayment schedule that will begin in the first quarter 2010 and be completed by the end of 2010. The company's shares climbed 60 cents or 48.8 per cent to close at $1.83 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday, with more than 12 million shares traded. The shares soared ahead of the announcement Monday, gaining 46 per cent before being halted on the TSX. Last week, Timminco confirmed it will defend itself against a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the company and its chief executive misled investors. The action, filed last week in Ontario Superior Court, seeks $520 million on behalf of investors who bought Timminco stock between March and November last year. It contends that the company, chairman-CEO Heinz Schimmelbusch and others provided misleading information about the profit potential of its process to produce high-grade silicon for use in solar cells. Timminco shares, which rocketed from penny-stock levels in April 2007 to a peak of $35.69 last June, closed Friday at $1.30, down 96 per cent from their high. Schimmelbusch told the company's annual meeting that Timminco's problems "are primarily market-driven," caused by a slump in the solar energy industry related to a lack of financing and fewer government subsidies. Timminco has cut production, spun off assets and delayed expansion, and reported a first-quarter loss of $22.3 million as sales fell 20 per cent from a year earlier to $37.7 million. (c) 2009 The Canadian Press |