Moser Baer

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   Moser Baer arm picks up 40% stake in Slovenia co 

Move To Guarantee Assured Supply Of Solar Wafers To Optical Media Firm 

   MOSER Baer Photo Voltaic (MBPV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Moser Baer India, has picked up 40% stake in Slovenia-based Solarvalue Proizvodnja would acquire the stake from Germany-based Solarvalue AG, which currently holds 100% stake in the Slovenian company involved in solar silicon production. 
   Given the global demand-supply imbalance of silicon, the new investment would guarantee MBPV an assured supply of high-grade solar wafers. “The total value of investment stands at $10 million, of which $6 million is the initial commitment, and the balance investment is based on certain milestones,” Moser Baer CFO Yogesh Mathur told ET. 
   MBPV is in the process of setting up a photo voltaic (PV) cell and module manufacturing project with an 80MW capacity in India’s first renewable energy SEZ at Greater Noida. It has already concluded trials for 40MW capacity and hopes to commission another 40MW by the second half of next fiscal. The company’s foray into the business comes at a time when the global PV space is expected to grow five-fold to Rs 135,000 crore by 2010. 
   “This investment gives us an assured supply of solar grade polysilicon, a key raw material for slicon-based photovoltaic project. At present, there is a shortage of polysilicon because of the high demand. While the raw material for the first 40MW is tied up through spot buying and medium-term supply contracts, the new investment is aimed at tying up the raw material requirements for the next phase of 40MW,” Mr Mathur said. 
   Solarvalue plans to set up a capacity of over 4,000 tonnes of solar grade silicon by end of 2008. With the acquisition MBPV now has a supply agreement for 40% of the output of the solar grid polysilicon project. 
   MBPV has so far picked up equity positions in California-based nanotechnology start-up Stion Corporation; and in two solar concentrator technology firms Solaria and SolFocus. 

Warburg ups stake in Moser Baer 

New Delhi:The affiliates of Warburg Pincus have hiked their holding in Moser Baer India to 33.75%, by converting GDRs into equity shares. The affiliates, which held 29.49% stake, converted 47,500 GDRs of the company (each GDR representing 100 underlying equity shares) into 4,750,000 equity shares, Moser Baer said in a notice to BSE on Friday. 
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Warburg Pincus made big gains by investing in Bharti Airtel...Better watch out for this....No doubt, Oil is at $65 is a threat to Moser Baer. They have launched www.moserbaerhomevideo.com for e-retailing of their products (I know its too long). This initiative is a big threat to DVD rentals co.