SunPower Reclassifying Convertible Debt (SPWR)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR) price of its common stock on at least 20 of the last 30 trading days during the fiscal quarter ending June 29, 2008 has equaled or exceeded $70.94, which represents 125% of the conversion price for one series of its outstanding senior convertible debentures. 

As a result, the market price conversion trigger has been satisfied and the debentures may be converted at the holders’ option during SunPower’s third fiscal quarter ending September 28, 2008.  Given that the market value of the debentures substantially exceeds the value holders would receive upon stock conversion, the company believes that holders may not have a significant economic incentive to convert at current prices.  As the principal amount of any debentures surrendered for conversion must be settled in cash, SunPower must satisfy the remaining conversion obligation of the 1.25% senior convertible debentures due 2027 in shares of common stock and it will classify the $200 million as short-term debt on its June 29, 2008 balance sheet.

If the common stock price conversion test isn’t met in a subsequent quarter, the debentures may then be re-classified as non-current debt as of the end of such quarter.

Based on SunPower’s current financial condition, its management believes that liquidity from the current sources combined with the potential future sources of funding from debt and equity markets will be adequate to fund SunPower’s financial obligations and to fund its planned capital expenditures and business plans over the next 12 months.

To put this in perspective, SunPower Corp. has a market cap of $6.89 Billion and the company had raw liquidity of cash, cash equivalents, and investments of over $558 million as of its last year-end.  Shares also closed at $81.36 on Friday and its 52-Week Trading Range is $53.18 to $164.49.

Jon C. Ogg
June 23, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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