Yingli Green Energy Filed Extension for 2015 Form 20-F and Disclosed Preliminary Financial Results for Full Year 2015
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited , one of the world’s leading solar panel manufacturers, known as “Yingli solar,” recently announced that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a Form 12b-25 (the “Form 12b-25”) to extend by fifteen days the due date for filing its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 (the “2015 Form 20-F”) and disclosed preliminary, unaudited financial results for full year 2015.
The Company is unable to file the 2015 Form 20-F on or before the prescribed due date of May 2, 2016 without unreasonable effort or expense, because the Company needs more time to prepare and review its consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2015 and notes thereto, to finalize the assessment of its internal control over financial reporting and to finalize its other disclosures, including those related to the Company’s liquidity, as further discussed below. The Company’s management expects that the 2015 Form 20-F will be filed on or before May 16, 2016.
The Company disclosed in the Form 12b-25 that, while the Company has not yet finalized its consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2015 to be included in the 2015 Form 20-F nor the other disclosures required therein, the Company anticipates the following significant changes in results of operations from the last fiscal year will be reflected in the consolidated financial statements to be included in the 2015 Form 20-F.
The Company estimates that its net loss in 2015 was in the range of RMB 5.8 billion to RMB 5.9 billion, increased from net loss of RMB 1.3 billion in 2014. The expected increase of net loss in 2015 was primarily resulted from the following significant changes:
The decrease of net revenues. The Company estimates that its total net revenues in 2015 was in the range of RMB10.0 billion to RMB10.2 billion, decreased from net revenue of RMB 12.9 billion in 2014. The expected decrease in total net revenues year-over-year was primarily due to the decrease of PV module shipments (excluding PV module shipments to the Company’s own downstream PV projects in China) from 3,101MW in 2014 to 2,357 MW in 2015 as a result of the lower utilization rate of the Company’s production capacity in certain quarters of 2015 due to tight cash flow as well as the decline of selling price of PV modules around the world, especially in China.
The decrease of gross profit. The Company estimates that gross profit in 2015 was in the range of RMB 1.1 billion to RMB 1.2 billion, decreased from RMB 2.2 billion which was mainly due to the lower utilization rate of the Company’s production capacity and the decrease of revenue as discussed above.
Impairment of long-lived assets. Due to lower-than-expected utilization of certain production facilities, the Company did an impairment analysis on its long-lived assets in 2015 and expects to record an impairment loss of approximately RMB 3.8 billion for property, plant and equipment with respect to the production facilities based on the difference between carrying value and fair value of such long-lived assets.
Provision for inventory purchase commitments under long-term polysilicon supply contracts. In 2015, the Company expects to record provisions of approximately RMB 522.8 million for the prepayments to certain suppliers under the Company’s long-term polysilicon supply contracts as a result of the reassessment of the purchase commitments under those supply contracts. No such provision was made in 2014.
The increase of income tax expense. The Company expects to recognize income tax expense of approximately RMB 731.2 million in 2015, compared to income tax expense of RMB 89.7 million in 2014. The expected increase of income tax expense year-over-year was mainly due to assessment on recovery of deferred income tax assets which resulted in an additional valuation allowance of deferred income tax assets in 2015.
The increase of net loss in 2015 is expected to be partially offset by the following significant change:
Gain on disposal of land use rights. In 2015, Fine Silicon, one of the Company’s subsidiaries in China, disposed its land use rights and the Company expects to recognize a disposal gain of approximately RMB 1.2 billion.
The Company is also in the process of finalizing its assessment of control deficiencies identified which could be material weakness related to the lack of sufficient accounting and financial reporting personnel with adequate US GAAP knowledge.
In addition, the Company expects to disclose in the 2015 Form 20-F that there is substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern. In particular, Tianwei Yingli, a major subsidiary of the Company, repaid only approximately 70% of the RMB denominated unsecured five-year medium-term notes of RMB 1.0 billion (the “2010 MTNs”) when they became due on October 13, 2015, and has RMB denominated unsecured five-year medium-term notes of RMB 1.4 billion (the “2011 MTNs”) due on May 12, 2016. As disclosed in the Company’s press release dated April 6, 2016, Tianwei Yingli informed holders of the 2011 MTNs that it would be very difficult for Tianwei Yingli to repay the 2011 MTNs on the due date and Tianwei Yingli proposed to extend the repayment date by two to three years; and holders of the 2010 MTNs demanded Tianwei Yingli to repay the remaining portion of the 2010 MTNs in full together with accrued interests before May 12, 2016. Tianwei Yingli is still in the process of actively discussing with the holders of the 2011 MTNs and the 2010 MTNs about potential extension of the repayment dates of both MTNs and the Company’s alternative financing plans for repayment of both MTNs, such as 1) introduction of strategic investors to invest into the Company and the Company’s subsidiaries, 2) introduction of new creditors to grant new borrowings to the Company or the Company’s subsidiaries, and 3) sales of certain long-lived assets including land use rights to obtain additional funds. The Company also expects to disclose such alternative financing plans to improve the Company’s liquidity and financial position in the 2015 Form 20-F.
All of the above anticipated changes, including preliminary, unaudited financial results for full year 2015, are based on the Company’s management’s preliminary review of the results of operations for full year 2015 and remain subject to change based on the management’s ongoing review and assessment before filing of the 2015 Form 20-F.
