Notable exceptions were Centrotherm Photovoltaics, a German company which makes manufacturing equipment for solar silicon and module producers (see page 3), French wind power firm Theolia and Austrian hydropower utility Verbund.
Shares in Theolia increased by 63% to €1.71 each during August after the firm bolstered its balance sheet following completion of a €60 million fundraising in July, before reporting record revenues for the first half of this year.
€4.1 billion market cap Verbund saw its shares gain 3% last month as Austria’s Government received permission from the country’s parliament to subscribe to €510 million of shares in a planned capital increase of £1 billion, which would mean the Government retaining its 51% ownership of the business. Verbund, which operates more than 120 hydropower plants with a combined capacity of almost 7.5GW, is Austria’s largest power provider.
Other gains in Europe were made by Germany’s Aleo Solar (up 4.8%) and French cleantech firms Aérowatt (up 10.2%), Environnement (up 4.8%) and Europlasma (up 12.1%).
Across the Atlantic, shares in various solar sector companies held up well. The best performer was GT Solar, a manufacturer of equipment needed to make solar-grade silicon, whose share price increased by 16.2% to $7.73. At the beginning of the month, the $1.1 billion market cap firm reported a significant increase in first-quarter results for its 2011 financial year, along with a 120% increase in its Q1 earnings per share to $0.11.
Meanwhile, cleantech IPOs continued to gather pace with news that Florida-based biomass fuels business PetroAlgae plans to raise up to $200 million via a share offer in the US (see page 8). Another biofuels company, Colorado-based Gevo, also filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August. It hopes to raise up to $150 million.
Back in Europe, Italian utility Enel is looking to reduce its debt position with a £3 billion stock flotation of its renewable energy business ENEL Green Power.
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