Canadian Solar rises on report of CNOOC purchase

Canadian Solar Inc. gained the most in more than a month on a report China National Offshore Oil Corp. is in talks to buy the maker of solar modules.

Canadian Solar climbed 7.6 per cent to $3.54 at the close in New York, giving it a market value of $154.1 million. China Business Media said the company is in negotiations to be bought by China’s national oil producer, without saying where it obtained the information.

The solar company, which is based in Kitchener, Ont., and manufactures most of its products in China, denied it may be bought by CNOOC, Reuters reported.

Canadian Solar and other Chinese panel companies are due for acquisitions after production surged and prices fell by half last year, said Hari Chandra Polavarapu, an analyst at Auriga USA in New York.

“Logically, consolidation should happen because you have an excess supply situation,” Polavarapu said in an interview. “The entire industry would welcome it, and the Chinese solar companies would welcome it as well because there’s a dire need.”