More Cleantech IPOs and Mergers Coming? (FSLR, SPWRA, ENER, WFR)

If you have watched the earnings from solar power companies and other Cleantech companies in recent weeks, the obvious elephant in the room is the notion that there needs to be mergers in the aspects of Cleantech.  There is a problem in betting that companies like First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) or SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWRA) are just about to embark on a wave of acquisitions.  Companies probably only want to buy profitable companies or companies that can be profitable under a larger operator.  That may be hard to come by.

But there is a reason to wonder if more Cleantech mergers are heading our way.  First and foremost,, Stifel Nicolaus & Company just announced today that it has brought over a head of Cleantech Investment Banking Team.  We have also seen SunPower recently make a transaction.  And the IPO market has been very quiet as Wall Street does not want to reabsorb private equity re-sells nor does it want to finance companies losing money.

Shez Bandukwala has joined the Stifel’s investment banking group as head of its Cleantech Investment Banking Team, reporting to Victor Nesi, Director of Investment Banking and Co-Director of Capital Markets.

Bandukwala was previously group head of the Greentech & Alternative Energy practice at ThinkEquity and two other former ThinkEquity cleantech bankers are joining the team as well.

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER) is a name that constantly comes up in merger rumors.  MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) is another name that has routinely come up as a buyout candidate in the materials space for making PV wafers.  We have many reasons to think that either deal would be very hard to do to get shareholders to agree to a buyout at these depressed share prices, but the rumor mill pushes these two names out routinely.

Neither ThinkEquity nor Stifel Nicolaus is not the biggest investment banking firm out there.  Not even close.  But bringing on a team for cleantech probably isn’t just so that the firm can pick up the brokerage and trading accounts of a few executives in the cleantech sector.  If the stock market holds up and if we do not go into the dreaded double-dip recession, there will be room for more M&A and more initial public offerings out there in the cleantech and green energy sector.

JON C. OGG