Ming Yang Headwinds Spotlight Sector Woes 明阳挫折凸显行业之殇

By newsdoug on June 1, 2011

Not so smooth sailing for Ming Yang First it was LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK), and now wind power company China Ming Yang (NYSE: MY) has become the latest victim of financial markets that are getting cold feet over the alternate energy story. Ming Yang has informed the world it’s shelving a secondary offering plan and even considering a share buyback due to its low stock price. (company announcement) In fact, Ming Yang is hardly alone in its inability to tap financial markets, which have grown decidedly cold on all alternate energy plays, be they wind or solar. Ming Yang and solar specialists have all seen their stocks drop one-third to as much as half from their 52-week highs in recent months, and all now trade at price-to-earnings ratios of anywhere from 8 for Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) to an outright alarming 5 for Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL). It’s one thing when a shaky company like LDK can’t raise money, but when healthier firms are also having trouble it may be time to start worrying a bit, especially as this sector is quite capital intensive and depends heavily on its ability to raise new cash. Cooling urgency around global incentives to install more alternate power, spotlighted by recent changes in Italian policy (previous post), is certainly one of the major forces cooling investor sentiment. If China is smart, it will start putting out more signals that it’s prepared to take aggressive steps to support this promising sector at home, which now supplies more than half the world’s solar cells. Otherwise, a major cash crunch could be looming.

Bottom line: Ming Yang’s secondary offering cancellation reflects an alternate energy sector sliding into crisis, and could foreshadow an industry cash crunch if the trend continues.

先是江西赛维太阳能<LDK.N>，现在又轮到风电公司中国明阳<MY.N>成为金融市场面对新能源题材股临阵退却的受害者。明阳宣布撤回第二轮增发，因股价太低，公司甚至考虑股票回购计划。实际上，明阳在这方面并非形单影只，金融市场对於所有新能源企业已变得非常冷淡，无论是风能还是太阳能。明阳以及太阳能企业股价最近几个月下挫近三分之一，至约为52周高位的一半，目前市盈率均非常低，如阿斯特的市盈率约为8倍，而天合光能<TSL.N>仅有5倍。企业孱弱如赛维者融资难尚可解释，但是健康企业也开始出现困难的话，就引人深思了，而且这个行业对资金需求非常大，还严重依赖筹集新资金的能力。全球新能源安装需求的迫切性有所降温，譬如意大利最近修订相关政策等，这显然是投资者情绪降温的主要推手之一。中国如果明智的话，就应该开始释放更多信号，显示其已准备以积极措施提供行业支持。否则严重的资金紧缺可能就要来临。

一句话：明阳取消第二轮增发计划反映出新能源行业滑向危机，如果该趋势继续，可能预示着整个行业资金紧缺期的到来。