Wednesday, November 16, 2011

GT Advanced Tech plans $100M share buyback

By Rodney Brown

New Hampshire polysilicon equipment maker GT Advanced Technologies Inc. reports that it plans to buy back up to $100 million of the company’s common stock, and will retire the majority of the purchased shares in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011.

In a release from Merrimack-based GT Advanced Tech (Nasdaq: GTAT), the company said its board of directors has given approval for the share repurchase, and that $75 million of that $100 million will go into an “accelerated repurchase” of shares to be held on or around Nov. 21. The remaining $25 million will be used to buy back shares on an occasional basis on the open market or through private sales.

Tom Gutierrez, president and CEO of GT Advanced Tech, said in a statement that the company believes “our shares are undervalued and that a repurchase makes good economic sense.” He cited a strong cash flow and solid fundamentals as reasons why the company should be valued higher.

GT Advanced Tech makes the machinery needed to make sapphire and silicon crystals and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets. The company started out with a focus on solar production equipment, and was initially known as GT Solar until this August. That month it acquired Confluence Solar Inc. of Missouri for up to $80 million. GT Advanced Tech said that acquiring Confluence gives it the opportunity to add its HiCz technology, which enables the production of high efficiency monocrystalline solar ingots, to the GT product line of solar cell manufacturing equipment.

Last month GT Advanced Tech received a $47.7 million order for polysilicon production equipment from a company that is working to build out solar energy in Saudi Arabia.