SunPower Brings Solar to Middle East With Total Backing

Bloomberg Businessweek

Being majority-owned by Europe’s third-largest oil company will help SunPower Corp. (SPWR) (SPWR) bring solar power to the Middle East.

Total SA (FP), which owns 66 percent of SunPower, has close ties to customers and suppliers in the Middle East and Africa, and is seeking to bundle fuel contracts with sales of SunPower solar panels, SunPower Chief Executive Officer Thomas Werner said in a phone interview June 22.

Total’s backing also gives San Jose, California-based SunPower cheaper borrowing costs and more money to invest in research while other solar companies must contend with a global oversupply that’s driven down the price of panels 42 percent in the year since the oil company purchased its stake, Werner said.