What you are about to read is a sneaky way of announcing a reverse stock split to stay within the listing standards of the $1.00 share price rule. JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) has announced that it will change the ratio of its American depositary shares to its ordinary shares from one ADS representing one ordinary share to a new ratio where one ADS will now represent five ordinary shares. In effect, this is a one-for-five reverse stock split.

The effective date will be December 10, 2012. With its shares down at $0.70 and with its shares not having traded above $1.00 since August 29, 2012, the only way to get back above the $1.00 mark without any good news being announced is to commence a reverse split. This will take shares up to $3.50, before the effects of any bets against the share price. Investors tend to bet that companies conducting reverse stock splits will have much more downside, even though that is not always the case. Before the effects of the reverse stock split, that $0.70 price compares to a 52-week range of $0.62 to $2.34.

In short, this is yet one more solar player that is in trouble. JA Solar trades on average about 1.1 million shares per day and its market cap is listed as $137 million. Thomson Reuters has a consensus estimates of -$0.94 EPS and $1.06 billion in sales for 2012.

JON C. OGG

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