Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Evergreen Solar gets another Nasdaq warning

By Rodney Brown

The Nasdaq market continues to send warning letters to Evergreen Solar Inc., the latest being a delisting warning because the company — which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — has not filed its financial documents on time.

In a release late yesterday, Evergreen noted that the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Staff sent the Marlborough company a delisting warning letter because “it has not filed its report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 2, 2011 in a timely manner.” The letter, however, comes after Evergreen had already announced the Nasdaq’s intentions to delist its stock because of the Chapter 11 filing. Shares in Evergreen will stop trading on the market today, according to the company’s previous statement.

In July, Evergreen had received two warning letters from the Nasdaq, in connection with the company’s share price not being able to stay at or above $1 and declining market value. Earlier this month, the company filed for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Evergreen said it does have enough funding in hand to operate in Chapter 11, but plans further cost-cutting measures. The company, which cut 800 of its 925 Massachusetts jobs as it closed its Devens factory in March, said it will reduce its U.S. and European workforce by about 65. Evergreen will suspend operations at its filament facility in Midland, Mich., the company said.

In a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing, CEO Michael El-Hillow said Evergreen will continue seeking to reposition itself as a supplier of solar wafers, a building block of solar panels. The company has opted to shift to wafers after finding stiff competition, particularly from Chinese manufacturers, in the production of solar panels. Evergreen opened its own factory in Wuhan, China, in 2010.