Merrimack, NH-based GT Solar, a provider of technology in the solar and LED spaces, announced today that it plans to purchase and retire 26.5 million shares of its common stock from all of its private equity investors, at $7.66 per share. The $203 million deal, expected to close on or before November 12, will reduce GT’s total shares outstanding from about 151 million shares to about 124 million. GT Solar paid for the transaction in cash, but has also gotten a commitment from Credit Suisse for a credit facility of up to $200 million, for greater flexibility in pursuing future business opportunities. The firm has also promoted GT Solar director and former Western Digital chairman and CEO Matt Massengill to the position of chairman to replace J. Bradford Forth, who resigned alongside board member R. Chad Van Sweden as part of the stock repurchase transaction.
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
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