One of Vermont’s largest publicly traded firms has filed for chapter.
iSun, the Williston-based photo voltaic power firm, is searching for permission to promote its belongings after years of economic misery, based on federal chapter courtroom filings. iSun is the mum or dad firm of SunCommon, a Waterbury-based photo voltaic panel installer.
Jeff Peck, CEO of iSun, wrote in a courtroom submitting supporting the chapter petition on June 3 that iSun has not made a revenue in two years. He stated the corporate, which operates all through New England, “is on the verge of closing.”
iSun has a web lack of $19.4 million in 2023, Peck advised the courtroom, after a web lack of $53.8 million in 2022. This yr, the corporate is forecasting a $10 million web loss, he stated – including that it presently was dropping cash at a fee of $250,000 per week.
The firm’s inventory, in the meantime, was delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market final month.
iSun’s chapter comes after months of govt turnover. Peck was changed by Robert Zulkoski as CEO in March however was reassigned a month later. Chief monetary officer John Sullivan parted methods with the corporate in March.
The firm additionally faces litigation filed by a former govt and two former consultants late final month in Chittenden County Superior civil courtroom alleging wrongful termination.
In response to an interview request Monday, an iSun spokeswoman emailed an announcement from Peck calling the corporate’s chapter “one of the best path ahead.”
“This course of will allow us to remodel our funds and operations to make sure our long-term sustainability and competitiveness,” Peck stated within the assertion, including that iSun is “dedicated to minimizing any disruption to our workers, prospects, and distributors.”
Meanwhile, “operations will proceed as normal” at SunCommon throughout the proceedings, stated James Moore, the corporate’s president, in the identical emailed assertion.
iSun purchased SunCommon for $40 million in 2021 in an effort to realize a foothold within the residential photo voltaic set up market. iSun additionally manufactures electrical car charging stations and photo voltaic panel canopies, and it provides industrial electrical energy contracting providers.
In courtroom paperwork, Peck stated excessive rates of interest contributed to the corporate’s monetary points. He stated they’ve elevated the corporate’s prices in recent times – and made it much less engaging for potential prospects to put money into new photo voltaic power techniques.
Analysts level to excessive rates of interest as one of many many challenges going through the photo voltaic trade this yr. A November 2023 report by the power trade evaluation firm Wood Mackenzie discovered that the typical annual share fee of a mortgage for photo voltaic initiatives elevated from 2.5% within the second half in 2022 to over 6% a yr in the past.
However, the chief of a Vermont trade group stated he does not assume iSun’s troubles are indicative of a bigger pattern inside the state’s photo voltaic trade.
“I feel numerous firms are nonetheless on the market, in a position to construct it and set up photo voltaic,” stated Peter Sterling, govt director of Renewable Energy Vermont, in an interview Monday. “People who need to go photo voltaic can nonetheless do it.”
At the time of its chapter submitting final week, iSun had 196 workers, courtroom information present.
If the corporate’s plans are accepted by the courtroom, information present, its belongings could be acquired by an affiliate of Texas-based power funding agency Siltstone Capital.
