First Solar shares soar after it announces new contracts, added plant

7/9/2007

Shares of solar-energy industry supplier First Solar Inc. shot up nearly $17 to $113.41 in noon trading on news that the company has landed new business and is expanding production capacity overseas.

While headquartered in Phoenix, the maker of solar-energy modules employs more than 580 people in Perrysburg Township at its U.S. manufacturing base and design center.

Officials said in an early morning announcement that they had inked five contracts that will generate $1.3 billion in sales, all in Europe, through 2012.

Additionally, the firm s board has approved a $150 million plant in Malaysia to be completed in early 2009. The new facility would more than double First Solar s production capacity in that Asian nation, where it began construction of its first plant in April.

The company has a plant near Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, that recently started production for Europe.

First Solar, whose shares began trading to the public last year, is traded on the Nasdaq National Market.

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