SunEdison Inc. (SUNE): New Analyst Report from Zacks Equity Research - Zacks Equity Research Report

With more than 50 years of experience in the design and development of silicon wafer technologies, SunEdison Inc. (On May 30, 2013, SunEdison announced that the process to change the company's name from MEMC to SunEdison was complete. The stock is now trading under the ticker "SUNE" instead of WFR") has evolved into a leading global producer of silicon and polysilicon wafers for the semiconductor and solar cell manufacturing industries. The company supplies wafers of varying sizes, including 100mm, 125mm, 150mm, 200mm and 300mm to the semiconductor industry. Wafer categories available under each size are prime polished, epitaxial, test/monitor and Silicon-on-Insulator. The company's flagship products are integral for producing semiconductor devices, which are used in computers, cellular phones and other mobile electronic devices, automobiles, as well as other consumer and industrial products.

SunEdison operates manufacturing facilities in Europe, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Its customers include all major semiconductor device manufacturers in the world, whether in the memory, microprocessor, ASIC, or foundry segments.

SunEdison started out with a single reportable segment. However, following the acquisition of solar energy solutions provider SunEdison in Nov 20, 2009, the company started operating under two reportable segments: Materials Business (design, manufacture and sale of silicon wafers) and Solar Energy. Effective Jan 1, 2010, SunEdison reorganized its historical Materials Business operations into two, namely, Semiconductor Materials and Solar Materials, taking the number of reportable segments to three. However, effective from Dec 8, 2011, SunEdison combined Solar Materials and Solar Energy businesses together to reduce costs and improve cash flows. Therefore, it now has two reportable segments namely Semiconductor Materials and Solar Energy.

Semiconductor Materials: This segment includes the development, production and marketing of wafers used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, with a wide variety of features satisfying numerous product specifications according to customer requirements. SunEdison markets its semiconductor wafers through a direct sales force.

Solar Energy: The Solar Energy segment mainly consists of SunEdison's operations. Through this segment, SunEdison offers solar energy services, which include the financing, development, installation, operation and maintenance of the solar power plants as a single provider for utility service providers. The company markets its solar energy generation, monitoring and maintenance services primarily through a direct sales force, and also through local or regional solar channel partners both domestically and internationally. From Jan 1, 2012, the segment includes the activities of development and production of polysilicon, square and pseudo-square crystalline solar wafers and solar cells.

SunEdison competes with Shin-Etsu Handotai, SUMCO, and Siltronic in the semiconductor market. Major competitors in the solar energy services provider market include SunPower Corporation, First Solar Inc., Recurrent Energy Inc., T-Solar Global, S.A. and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures.