First published in the Quoted Cleantech newsletter, January 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011

Cleantech shares enjoyed a bounce in December as the sector benefited from wider enthusiasm for stocks. Of the shares that we track, many saw double-digit gains during the month.

Among the larger cleantech businesses, shares in €7 billion market cap Suez Environnement jumped 11.6% to end the year at €15.45 each. The water and waste services firm announced last month that it had bought, for €174 million, the waste management activities of the New South Wales Government in Australia.

Spanish wind energy giants Gamesa and Iberdrola Renovables rose 13.1% and 12.7% respectively. Gamesa signed a deal to supply several hundred megawatts of turbines to Mexican wind farms in December (see page 3), and the company is rumoured to be looking to buy a majority stake in Indian turbine manufacturer Suzlon (although Suzlon has denied this in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange). Meanwhile the European Investment Bank granted Iberdrola a loan for £650 million that will be used to fund electricity distribution projects in the UK over a three year period.

Even Germany’s Q-Cells, the one-time solar sector bellwether that has seen a steady decline in its share price since 2008, benefited from the Santa rally, with its shares improving 17.5% during December – a rise explained by analysts as being due to investors judging the shares as having fallen too low.

Biofuels company CropEnergies jumped an impressive 30% during the month as it reported a significant increase in its revenues.

Smaller firms did well too. On NYSE Euronext’s Alternext market for growth companies, China Photovoltaic Group saw its shares jump 96.3% after it signed a major supply agreement for its solar modules (see page 6).

Over on London’s Alternative Investment Market, Nature Group announced it was expanding through the acquisition of a Rotterdam-based waste management business. The firm’s shares increased by 17.5% during December.

To add to the cheer, the final month of the year also saw flotations on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, SemiLEDs – a company that makes ultra-high brightness light emitting diode chips in Taiwan – joined NASDAQ in an $80 million IPO. Meanwhile, London’s AIM played host to ProPhotonix which raised £825,000 on its debut on the junior market.

 

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