Germany based manufacturer of wet chemical surface treatment equipment maker RENA Technologies has sold its Chinese solar business to Productive Technologies Company (PDT), a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed manufacturer for semiconductor and solar cell equipment.
PDT will now develop and manufacture solar wet chemical equipment for Chinese companies exclusively, announced Equistone Partners Europe that owns a majority stake in RENA. It did not disclose transaction details. However, RENA will continue to serve the global solar market outside of China.
"With the sale to PDT, we are handing over the China solar business to our long-term partner, who is well positioned to further develop this business in China. RENA remains active in China for our customers in the areas of glass, wafering and semiconductors," said RENA CEO Peter Schneidewind.
The reason Equistone states for this divestment is that for RENA the 'importance' of the Chinese solar business has continuously decreased in recent years since the company has been busy diversifying in new end markets and has been experiencing strong growth in other business areas. In recent times, RENA acquired Austrian company HES that's active in wet-chemical post-processing of 3D-printed metal parts—that's now RENA Austria—along with US based wet-chemical equipment supplier for the semiconductor sector, MEI that's now rechristened as RENA North America.
Equistone cleared that all other business areas of RENA namely semiconductors, wafering, medtech, glass and additive manufacturing remain unaffected by this transaction, including in China.
Wet chemical surface treatment is an important step in solar cell fabrication for surface texturing and cleaning processes. TaiyangNews' market survey on PERC Cell Production Equipment 2022 covered the subject in depth (see Tools For Solar Wafer Texturing). The report can be downloaded for free here.