Yingli's Restructuring Plan Officially Approved by the Court Ruling

BAODING, China, Nov. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 20, the "Restructuring plan of Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited and other five manufacturing entities" (the "Plan") has been approved by the ruling of Baoding Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Hebei Province, China, and the Judicial proceedings are terminated. Which means that Yingli's restructuring has achieved a critical milestone, and the only challenge left is the execution of the approved Restructure Plan.

On September 9, the first Creditors' Meeting of Yingli Energy (China) Limited and five other entities was held to vote on the draft Restructure Plan. After the expiration of the voting period, according to statistics, the voting results of the employee creditors' group, the original investors' group, the secured creditors' group, and the ordinary creditors' group all met the legal threshold for the adoption of the Plan, with more than 90% of the votes cast in favor of the plan, indicating that the parties had shown great affirmation and support for Yingli's restructuring. Based on the voting results, on October 19, the Administrator filed a request to the People's Court for approval of the Plan.

"Since Yingli entered into judicial restructuring proceedings, we have followed the principles of market practice and rules of law, with the main objectives of optimizing the company's asset and liability structure and restoring its profitability, and designed a comprehensive work plan to rescue the company. We have formulated detailed and concrete measures in terms of operation, adjustment of investors' rights and interests, adjustment and settlement of claims, and employee resettlement to ensure the feasibility of the draft plan and to maximumly protect the legitimate rights and interests of various types of creditors, which have been highly recognized by the parties," said Administrator. "Next, under the guidance of the People's Court, we will supervise the execution of the plan to lay a solid foundation for the Company's improvement and high-quality development."

The core contents of the restructuring plan include the conversion of a significant portion of the financial debts of the 6 restructuring entities into equity interests in the restructuring entities, full and orderly repayment of parts of financial debts and other payables, and fund injection of third-party platforms. The creditors with transforming creditors' right into shares, via a joint-venture holding platform, and Baoding municipal government, via a state-owned holding company will become the new shareholders of new Yingli. The holding company has signed an agreement with Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited to inject the value-added portion into new Yingli through the disposal of the corresponding land use right of Yingli, with an estimated capital size of at least RMB 2 billion. With the court's ruling in effect, new Yingli will begin the process of changing its shareholding and relocating its plants.  

"New Yingli will continue to retain and operate the production capacity, supply chain, technology, brand, sales channels and other assets of the original manufacturing entities and fulfill the commitments of the order and warranty to customers. In the future, new Yingli will rely on the national research platforms, develop the core technology with market competitiveness and independent intellectual property rights, ensure the technological advancement of N-type TOPCon, HJT and maintain the global leading level," said Yingli Energy (China) Co. In Baoding, New Yingli is investing in the construction of 5 GW of high-efficiency cell production capacity and 2 GW of high-efficiency module production capacity. At the same time, the company plans to build 3 GW of high-efficiency module capacity in Tianjin, taking full advantage of the export and logistics advantages of the Tianjin port, and to expand production capacity through joint ventures and other forms. With steady operation and gradually increasing market share, New Yingli will return to the top tier of the industry.

It is also said that the New Yingli will not be affected during the relocation and new production capacity expansion, and the management team will remain in place to run the company. Recently, the "National Technical Standard Innovation Base (PV)" built by Yingli Energy (China) passed the inspection by the Standard Innovation Department of the State General Administration of Market Supervision, which is the first technical standard innovation base in the field of PV and the only national technical standard innovation base in Hebei Province.

SOURCE Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited