First Solar Urges Shareholders to Reject TRC’s $30 Tender Offer

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- First Solar Inc., the biggest maker of thin-film solar products, is urging shareholders to reject an offer by TRC Capital Corp. to buy 2 million shares for $30 each.

First Solar shares traded above the offering price the day before the mini-tender was made, which would result in TRC gaining about 2.3 percent of the shares outstanding, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said today in a statement.

“TRC has made many similar mini-tender offers for shares of other companies,” First Solar said in the statement. “Mini- tender offers are designed to seek to acquire less than 5 percent of a company’s outstanding shares, thereby avoiding many disclosure and procedural requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, mini-tender offers do not provide investors with the same level of protections as provided by larger tender offers.”

--Editors: Reed Landberg, Tina Davis