August 17, 2011

Evergreen Solar STIFFS US Taxpayers, Screws Its Shareholders, Is Closing US Plants, Laying Off US Workers, Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy And Plans To Continue Operations In China!!! >:/

This is NOT free market capitalism. This is a fine example of CRONY capitalism, when our government is in bed with corporations. Our government GAVE this company millions of taxpayers dollars in the form of "green subsidies", cut them a tax break and loaned them taxpayer money WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. Let's be clear, our government WORK FOR US, they are OUR EMPLOYEES that we elect to represent us and spend taxpayer revenue RESPONSIBLY!!! Our government gets paid with taxpayer money. That subsidy money and loans get added to our national DEBT and the tax break reduces the amount of tax revenue (intake) our government receives. Any private corporation should be allowed to move where ever the heck it wants. They can move to the moon for all I care. What pisses me off is that this company and many others like General Electric, suck on the government teet at the taxpayers expense. After they have shafted us, they walk off to greener pastures giving us the middle finger with a huge grin on their faces!

Our federal government sold us all a bunch of malarchy when they pushed for "Green Jobs". We're paying tons of money for these so-called "Green Jobs" that have mostly gone bust here and are moving to China! So basically our government is using taxpayer funded "Green Subsidies" to stimulate China's economy and create Chinese "Green Jobs". We should have asked our elected officials where they planned to create those "Green Jobs". Lesson learned. They will not be able to fool us again! What makes matters worse is that we're finding out that the Global Warming initiative was a total scam.

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Telegram news
written by Priyanka Dayal
Tuesday August 16, 2011

MARLBORO — Seven months after shuttering a $450 million manufacturing plant that it built with help from the state, Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday and announced it would lay off more workers.

The maker of solar power products, which has headquarters in Marlboro, owes $485.6 million in debts, according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Facing competition from China, Evergreen closed its plant in Devens and laid off 800 workers. The Devens facility was built with the aid of $58 million in state grants, tax incentives and loans.

State officials yesterday said they'll continue to fight for the money Evergreen still owes the state.

“Today's Chapter 11 filing was not unexpected and will not prevent the administration from recovering funds Evergreen owes the commonwealth,” Kimberly Haberlin, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, said in a prepared statement.

“We have already terminated the company's tax incentive agreement, are aggressively pursuing recouping the $1.5 million in tax savings Evergreen realized this fiscal year and will move quickly to protect the public's interests throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.”

Evergreen may have up to 5,000 creditors, according to court documents. The company said its assets are worth $424.5 million — not enough to pay all its creditors.

“It is expected that no distributions will be made to holders of common stock,” Evergreen said in a news release.

Evergreen's stock plunged as the company announced its bankruptcy filing yesterday afternoon. Shares were worth just 18 cents at last trade yesterday.

The company is traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market but is out of compliance with Nasdaq rules because its shares are worth less than $1 each.

Evergreen has about 133 full-time employees in the United States and a small staff in Berlin, Germany. It plans to continue manufacturing solar products at its facility in Wuhan, China.

In announcing the bankruptcy filing, Evergreen said it would reduce its U.S. and European workforce by about 65 people, including the closure of a Midland, Mich., facility. In Massachusetts, the company will keep 50 employees in development and 10 employees in administration, according to Evergreen spokesman Michael W. McCarthy.

An Evergreen subsidiary in China has 25 employees working in research and development. In Germany, Evergreen has five salespeople who will be terminated or transferred to China within the next few months, according to court documents.

A buyer called ES Purchaser LLC is prepared to make a bid to purchase Evergreen, the company said.

“If higher or better offers for assets are not obtained, it is expected that most of the company's assets will be acquired by ES Purchaser pursuant to the asset purchase agreement,” Evergreen said in a news release.

As part of its bankruptcy, Evergreen has reached an agreement with hedge funds and other investment entities holding more than 70 percent of Evergreen's 13 percent senior convertible notes due in 2015. Parties that signed a restructuring support agreement include Wall Street investors such as Aristeia Capital and Minnesota investors such as Pine River Capital Management, Whitebox Investors and Waterstone Capital Management, according to a 362-page filing.

Evergreen plans to shift its efforts from solar panels to low-cost silicon wafers, which are a component of panels.

Michael El-Hillow, president and chief executive officer, said the company will continue technology development during the bankruptcy and sale process.

“Day-to-day operations will go on as usual as employees carry out their responsibilities, and we will continue to pay our suppliers and vendors for goods and services … ”

For the first quarter of 2011, Evergreen posted an operating loss of $46.2 million, according to court documents.

The company said in a regulatory filing that it expects to spend $14 million to $17.5 million on bankers and lawyers during the bankruptcy process.

As for the shuttered Devens facility, Ms. Haberlin of the state economic development office said other developers have expressed interest in the site — “giving us confidence this building will be redeveloped — and people will be back at work there — in the near future.”

She said Evergreen's fall is not representative of Massachusetts' clean energy sector.

“Among solar companies alone, the administration's policies helped employment more than double between 2007 and 2010, while the number of solar companies grew from about 30 to 200,” she said.

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