Hoku Scientific Inc. has found a buyer in a Chengdu, China-based company that’s agreed to take a controlling ownership stake and help the financially troubled company finish construction of a polysilicon manufacturing plant in Idaho.
Hoku said it had signed a definitive agreement with Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co. Ltd. under which the China based maker of silicon wavers and photovoltaic cells will get a 60 percent interest in Hoku, along with rights to purchase more shares.
Hoku’s current shareholders will continue to own 40 percent of the voting shares and the company’s shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Stock market. Tianwei will get to nominate four of the seven directors on Hoku’s expanded board, including its chairman.
The agreement appears to help resolve financing issues faced by Hoku as it searched for money to remain in business and to complete the Idaho facility. The credit crunch and a drop in polysilicon prices had inhibited the company’s ability to get loans for the plant.

Tianwei has been a customer of Hoku, providing the Hawaiçi company with $79 million of prepayments for polysilicon from the Idaho facility. Hoku said $50 million of that will be converted into 33,379,287 shares of common stock and warrants to buy another 10 million shares. The transaction is expected to close in October.
In addition, there will be $50 million of initial debt financing by Tianwei and China Construction Bank. Hoku said this, along with other prepayments from existing customers, will help it get the plant to a point where it can start shipments of polysilicon, a material used in making photovoltaic cells and computer chips.