The other penny dropped for SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) Wednesday morning. The company filed a statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it will delay filing its 2015 Form 10-K annual report beyond the extended due date of March 15.
The worse news is that the further delay is “due to the identification by management of material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting.” The identified weaknesses are causing management to implement “additional procedures” to complete the company’s financial statements.
Then the news gets even worse:
In addition, the investigation by the Audit Committee, previously disclosed by the Company on Form 12b-25 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 29, 2016, concerning the accuracy of the Company’s anticipated financial position previously disclosed to the Company’s board of directors, has not yet been finalized.
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There is a bit of good news though. SunEdison claims that so far the “additional procedures” have not turned up any “material misstatements or restatements” of the company’s “audited or unaudited consolidated financial statements or disclosures for any period previously reported.”
TerraForm Power Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP), a yieldco controlled by SunEdison, also announced Wednesday morning that it will delay the filing of its 2015 Form 10-K beyond March 15. The firm said the further delay is “principally due to the need to complete all steps and tasks necessary to finalize our annual financial statements and other disclosures.”
TerraForm’s delay is tied to the delay at SunEdison:
Due to our management services arrangement with SunEdison under the Management Services Agreement, our financial reporting and control processes rely to a significant extent on SunEdison systems and personnel. As a result, if there are control deficiencies at SunEdison, including with respect to the systems we utilize, it is necessary for us to assess whether those deficiencies could affect our financial reporting and, if so, address them to the extent necessary and appropriate prior to filing our Form 10-K.
That’s not all:
Additionally, we have not yet completed all steps and tasks necessary to finalize our financial statements and other required disclosures. We currently have identified material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting primarily due to ineffective controls in relation to our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and processes for validating revenue recognition.
Due to its failure to file by March 15, TerraForm has received a delisting notice from Nasdaq, to which the company must reply by May 16 in order to regain compliance.
SunEdison’s stock bounced back a bit last week after the company settled a lawsuit related to an uncompleted acquisition and after its $2 billion purchase of Vivint Solar Inc. (NYSE: VSLR) was terminated by Vivint. And it is our firm conviction that CEO Ahmad Chatila needs to be replaced.
It may turn out that both SunEdison and TerraForm Power have in fact toed the regulatory line or just barely overstepped it. But by the time that happens, the situation may be completely out of control. SunEdison’s stock tumbled nearly 19% in Wednesday’s premarket session, trading at around $1.69 in a 52-week range of $1.21 to $33.45.
TerraForm Power was down more than 15% Wednesday morning to $8.95. The stock’s 52-week range is $6.73 to $42.66.
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