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Hoku and Solar-Fabrik Subsidiary Amend Polysilicon Supply Agreement
Hoku and Solar-Fabrik Subsidiary Amend Polysilicon Supply Agreement

Hoku Materials, Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOKU), established to
manufacture and sell polysilicon for the solar market, today announced an
amendment to its polysilicon supply agreement with Global Expertise Wafer
Division, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solar-Fabrik AG (XETRA: SFXG), a
vertically integrated solar power company in Freiburg, Germany, to extend
the date for Hoku to complete the financing for its planned polysilicon
plant. Under the terms of the amendment, Hoku or Global Expertise Wafer
Division may terminate the supply agreement if Hoku has not secured
financing for its polysilicon plant by May 31, 2008, which is a two-month
extension from the previous deadline of March 31, 2008. This is the only
amendment to the supply agreement, and the extended deadline is consistent
with the financing deadlines in Hoku's contracts with SANYO Electric Co.,
Ltd., and Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.
"We recently completed our $25 million private placement, and we continue
to work with Merrill Lynch on their due diligence to lend us the additional
capital we need to finance the construction of our polysilicon facility in
Pocatello, Idaho," said Dustin Shindo, Chief Executive Officer of Hoku
Scientific. "Extending the financing deadlines in our customer contracts
reduces some of the time pressure to complete the financing. We appreciate
the continuing support from Global Expertise Wafer Division of our planned
polysilicon business."
In December, 2007, Hoku Scientific announced that it had signed a
non-binding term sheet with Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. for
Hoku Materials to borrow up to approximately $185 million for the
construction, procurement and start-up of its planned polysilicon
production plant in Pocatello, Idaho. The term sheet expires on May 31,
2008. In February, Hoku Scientific completed the private placement of
approximately $25 million of its common stock to institutional investors
and a subsidiary of Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.
About Hoku Scientific, Inc.
Hoku Scientific (NASDAQ: HOKU) is a diversified clean energy technologies
company with three business units: Hoku Materials, Hoku Solar and Hoku Fuel
Cells. Hoku Materials plans to manufacture, market, and sell polysilicon
for the solar market from its plant currently under construction in
Pocatello, Idaho. Hoku Solar markets, sells and installs turnkey
photovoltaic systems in Hawaii. Hoku Fuel Cells has developed proprietary
fuel cell membranes and membrane electrode assemblies for stationary and
automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cells. For more information visit
www.hokuscientific.com.
About Solar-Fabrik AG
Global Expertise Wafer Division is a silicon wafer procurement house based
in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and is wholly owned by Solar-Fabrik AG. Global
Expertise Wafer Division buys recyclable wafers from the semiconductor
industry, opening up a new source of raw material previously unavailable to
the solar power sector. Solar-Fabrik has grown in only a decade from a
solar panel maker to an internationally focused, stock market-listed, fully
integrated solar power group. Solar-Fabrik and its subsidiaries and
associates span the entire solar power value chain: wafer procurement,
wafer recovery, solar cell manufacture, solar module production and system
solutions. Solar-Fabrik AG is headquartered in Freiburg, Germany, where the
company's two factories turn solar cells into top-quality solar modules.
Solar-Fabrik customers include solar energy specialists and general
importers throughout Europe. Module production is ISO-certified and runs
entirely on renewable energy, in what is Europe's first CO2-neutral zero
emissions manufacturing facility for solar modules. Solar-Fabrik also
provides customers with system solutions based on carefully matched
high-quality components. Based in Chennai (India), Poseidon Solar-Services
specializes in recovering recyclable wafers. Solar-Fabrik uses wafers
recovered by Poseidon to manufacture high-quality solar cells.
Singapore-based solar cell manufacturer SEP turns raw wafers recovered by
Poseidon into high-quality solar cells. Solar-Fabrik AG holds a one-third
stake in SEP. For more information about Solar-Fabrik Group, please visit
www.solar-fabrik.de.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve many
risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to Hoku Materials' ability
to successfully raise sufficient funds by May 31, 2008, if at all, to
establish polysilicon manufacturing facilities, including the final
decision of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. to provide the loan to
Hoku Materials, and the final amount of the loan to Hoku Materials, if at
all; the terms and conditions that may be included in the loan and
collateral documents; Hoku Materials' ability to engineer and construct a
production plant for polysilicon; its ability to manufacture polysilicon;
its cost to procure a polysilicon production facility; Hoku Materials'
ability to meet the delivery schedules in its customer contracts in
general, and to begin shipping products in 2009, in particular; it's
ability to successfully achieve the milestones in its contract with Global
Expertise Wafer Division, Ltd.; the quality of polysilicon to be
manufactured; Hoku Materials' costs to manufacture polysilicon, Hoku
Scientific's future financial performance; Hoku Scientific's business
strategy and plans; and objectives of management for future operations. In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as
"anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect,"
"intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should,"
"will," "would" and similar expressions intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Hoku Scientific's
actual results, performance, time frames or achievements to be materially
different from any future results, performance, time frames or achievements
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Given these risks,
uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements. In evaluating these statements, you
should specifically consider the risks described in Hoku Scientific's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by
law, Hoku Scientific assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking
statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ
materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even
if new information becomes available in the future.
Hoku, Hoku Solar, Hoku Fuel Cells, and the Hoku Scientific logo are
trademarks of Hoku Scientific, Inc., and Hoku Materials is the trademark of
Hoku Materials, Inc., all rights reserved.
Copyright © 2008, MarketWire
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze,
Daily News
Tags: Tags: Computers and Electronics, Environment, idaho
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