US solar power manufacturer SunPower has announced a sharp rise in net loss for the second quarter of 2011 but said it has secured significant line of credit from acquirer France's Total.
The company's second quarter revenue stood at $592m, compared with $384m in the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2011, revenue was $451m. But GAAP net loss was $148m, a huge increase from $2m in the first quarter and $6.2m in the same period in 2010. Non-GAAP gross margin was 12.5 per cent, down from 26 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 and 20 per cent from the first quarter of 2011.
SunPower has signed a letter of credit worth $771m with oil and gas giant Total that it said will provide access to $200m of restricted cash for the company's growth. This follows Total's purchase of SunPower for $1.3bn last June.
Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower, said, 'In the 2011 second quarter, revenue grew by more than 30 per cent sequentially as demand for our high efficiency systems remained strong. However, mix changes related to market conditions in Germany and Italy impacted our margins. We expect improved results in the second half of the year due to strong visibility in our North American utility and power plants and commercial businesses, both of which are fully allocated through the end of the year.'
SunPower predicts revenue in the next quarter to improve to between $700m and $750m with revenue for the year exceeding $2.8bn. It expects non-GAAP gross margin to improve slightly to between 13 and 15 per cent and it to be more than 17 per cent for 2011.
Revenue achieved in the second quarter was in line with a recent prediction from the company that included a revised down non-GAAP gross margin of between 12 and 13 per cent. At the end of July, SunPower and financial services group Citi launched a $105m fund to support residential solar projects in the US.