Soltec has been an involuntary protagonist in the economic pages last week. Late on Easter Monday, the company founded in 2004 by Raúl Morales and Francisco José Moreno presented a reformulation of its 2023 accounts. EY, the company that has audited its accounts in the last two years, has considered that 36 contracts , worth 192 million euros, were incorrectly recorded.
The news caused Soltec, which ranks fifth in the world in the manufacture of solar trackers (mechanisms that allow the plates to behave like sunflowers, capturing maximum radiation at all times), to receive a heavy punishment in the stock market. The stock fell 7.3% on Tuesday and closed just above 2 euros. At the close of Friday, the value had not only recovered from the blow, closing the week at 2.44 euros per share, but it had appreciated 17% compared to Black Tuesday and recovered values from March 11. This week is without a clear trend.
“The change has no impact on the debt. It is purely accounting, those 192 million will improve income in 2024. The company is doing very well and this type of contract is not only common in the sector, but they had already used it in other years, even with the same auditor, without problems,” explains Eduardo Imedio, Renta 4 analyst.
Clients and competitors in the solar market consulted by La Vanguardia are of the same opinion. “This questionable type of contract is common in the sector. Those who buy Soltec followers are not going to stop doing so because of a problem with the auditor. Their products work, and the orders will continue to come,” they explain from a company in the solar sector.
Time will tell if this incident will become one of the milestones in the company's history, although it seems difficult for it to compete with the many vicissitudes that Soltec has accumulated in its 20 years of history.
Raúl Morales, an engineer from Murcia, saw the sun business long before others. When solar energy barely existed in Spain, in 2004, he threw himself into it, trusting that it was the future. And it was, although it was going to take longer to arrive than expected. “We started with me being the only employee. We took off hand in hand with Spain's big bet in 2007 with premiums, but the legal change and the so-called sun tax came and in 2013 we were on the verge of going bankrupt. We were saved for days,” the manager acknowledged to La Vanguardia in a conversation prior to this stock market episode.
Then the commitment to international diversification that the company has maintained from the beginning saved him. Italy and Chile, first; Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, later, were the support during the Spanish renewable blackout. Soltec re-emerged like a phoenix with the business on the other side of the Atlantic. He returned to Spain with the renewable commitment of the Government of Pedro Sánchez and also set out to reconquer Europe. In 2016 and 2017, the FT 1000 ranked it as the fastest-growing energy company in 31 European countries. In 2023 it entered 376.8 million (according to the restructured version of its accounts from last week).
“This week was not his only scare. He had a very hard time during the pandemic when the cost of freight skyrocketed. They bring all their inputs from Asia. They recovered from that incident, and the war in Ukraine and the commitment of Europe and the US to renewables have greatly favored them,” says Eduardo Imedio.
Despite these two episodes, Soltec has accumulated 17.3 GW in solar trackers since it began selling these devices in 2014. In the first quarter of 2024 alone it has signed contracts worth 101.9 million euros, equivalent to 1,126 MW . Adding to the success of its industrial branch is another line of business, energy, which develops and operates solar plants. “Being a complete actor in the entire value chain is what Raúl always wanted to be. Generate and distribute solar energy. Now he already has it and it looks like he will continue to grow a lot in that leg too,” recalls a former employee of the company who also downplays Monday's incident. “Impact for the business, zero. Maybe it could cause some friction with the reference shareholders, little more,” says Morales' former colleague. Looking to the future, the bet is on the US. “It contributes 25% of the income and we hope that in the short term it will be 50%,” the company explains. They have appointed Alma Miller as advisor in the United States and are designing specific followers for that market.
