SolarWorld AG Pays Back Corporate Bond According to Schedule

Seven years after the start of its issue on May 2, 2004, the maturity period of a corporate bond floated by SolarWorld AG ended May 2, 2011. At the time in 2004, the group offered bearer bonds with an annual interest rate of 7 percent. The volume amounted to € 25 million, which the company is now paying back to investors as scheduled.

“We lived up to the trust that investors placed in our then young and fairly unknown company,” says Dr.-Ing. E.h. Frank Asbeck, chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG, “and through our long years of sound financing, we have acquired a good name in the capital market.”

The bond produced a safe return for investors, and with its help SolarWorld AG was in a position to broaden its capital base and consistently reach its growth objectives in a strongly expanding market environment. “Measured against the 2004 revenue of € 199.9 million, the €25 million bond was an important building block for the financing of further growth,” explained Philipp Koecke, CFO of SolarWorld AG, which generated revenues in excess of €1.3 billion in 2010.