Sept. 23, 2013 - Suntech today announced that on September 19, 2013, the Company received notice that the Court of Brindisi (Italy) issued a ruling to seize additional solar parks constructed by investee companies of Global Solar Fund S.C.A. SICAR ("GSF"). In total, with this new seizure, an aggregate of 37 GSF solar parks have been ordered seized which have a total capacity of approximately 30MW and represent approximately 21% of the aggregate nominal power capacity of solar parks held by GSF. The Court also ordered the seizure of feed-in-tariffs received by the investee companies of GSF that own the seized solar parks. As consistent with Italian legal proceedings, several people have been served pre-trial detention orders. GSF is currently in the process of reviewing the ruling issued by the Court to determine the next appropriate steps, and the Company is working with GSF to maintain operations while operating in a manner compliant with the Court's ruling.
As previously disclosed in the Company's 2010 Annual Report on Form 20-F, various solar parks constructed by investee companies of GSF have been the subject of an investigation relating to permitting and the authorization process by the Court of Brindisi (Italy). In the current ruling issued by the Court, the Court indicated the primary allegations for the current actions are potential improper operation related to underlying authorization issues for various solar parks, planning and environmental crimes resulting from such underlying authorization issues, and matters related to improper collection of feed-in-tariffs.
GSF is created to make investments in private companies that own or develop projects in the solar energy sector. The Company currently holds approximately 88% of the share equity in GSF.