Untenstehend die mE wichtigsten Punkte aus dem Prospekt so wie sie mir
beim Durchlesen ins Auge gestochen sind. Mein Fazit - sehr starke Marktposition, hervorragende Profitabilität und für 2011
sehr gute Aussichten (es konnte wegen Kapazitätsmangel nicht die ganze Nachfrage
in 2010 erfüllt werden und der Zwischenhändler in China wurde jetzt durch
Gründung einer Tochter ausgeschaltet).

Die beiden wichtigsten Risikofaktoren sind meines Erachtens die Gefahr neuer Marktteilnehmer
(z.B. 3M wird genannt) die von den gewaltigen Margen angelockt werden könnten sowie
eine technologische Innovation die ihr einziges Produkt überflüssig machen könnte (allerdings
gibt es das nun seit über 20 Jahren...).

Daneben liefert man sich noch dem Hauptaktionär aus.

Fazit: Wenn die prognostizierten Solar-Wachstumsraten eintreffen und der Marktanteil gehalten werden kann (nebst Margen) ist
die Aktie nicht teuer. Ich werde trotzdem nicht zeichnen, weil für mich diese Punkte nicht abschätzbar sind bzw. die
Downside wenn etwas schief geht sehr groß ist. Es würde mich aber nicht
überraschen wenn sich der Kurs innerhalb von 2 Jahren verdoppelt.


Prospekt
http://www.isovoltaic.com/ipo/ISOVOLTAIC_Prospectus.pdf


Business

We are the leading global provider of backsheets to the solar module
industry with a market share of approx.
35% based on revenues in 2009 (Source: Frost & Sullivan). We produce
exclusively polymer backsheets. Our
backsheets are predominately used in crystalline silicon and only to a
minor extent in thin-film solar modules.

Backsheets are a key component used in solar modules, protecting the
backside of photovoltaic cells of a solar
module from weathering, ultraviolet-light, moisture, chemical substances
and mechanical damages. Backsheets
also insulate the environment from the electrical voltage generated. While
backsheets account for only a small
percentage (typically between 4% and 7% (Source: Company estimate)) of the
cost of a solar module, they are
critical for the long-term performance of the solar module.

We supply backsheets to many major solar module manufacturers. We believe
we are the only major participant
in the backsheet market focusing on backsheet production as its only line
of business, which ensures the
consistent quality of our products and production standards for our
customers around the world. We believe that
we serve more (six out of ten) top ten solar module manufacturers in terms
of worldwide production capacity in
2009 than any of our competitors. We are well positioned with solar module
manufacturers in Asia, especially
manufacturers in China. Our revenue share from Asian customers increased
from 36% in 2008 to 68% in 2010.
We are convinced that we have gained a leading position (Source: Frost &
Sullivan) as supplier of choice for
many of the largest solar module producers due to our long-standing
relationships with those customers, the
quality of our products, backsheet customization capabilities and customer
service.

We started in 1985, as a part of Isovolta, to develop high-quality
backsheet films for solar modules and have
been selling backsheets on a commercial basis since 1987. Due to our early
involvement in the photovoltaic
industry and our track record, we can draw on our experience, special
application engineering capabilities and an
established network of customers, suppliers and other business partners.
Our ICOSOLAR® backsheets have
proven successful not only in standardized laboratory tests but also in
field use. We have constantly improved
our backsheets and made several product innovations, such as our “AAA”
and
“APA/FPA” backsheet product
families manufactured based on modified polyamides, which we started to
market in 2009 and which already
accounted for approx. 39% of our revenues in 2010.

-------------------------------

Significantly improved raw material supply

Access to raw materials and pre-products is key in a market segment
exposed to certain supply bottlenecks. We
believe we could have sold significantly more backsheets in 2010 if we had
not been subject to supply constraints
in respect of PVF foils. Although the shortage of PVF foils has deterred
growth of polymer backsheets producers
in recent years, we believe our 25 years of experience in the supply
markets and long-lasting relationships with
suppliers (amongst others DuPont, the only supplier of PVF foils/Tedlar®
worldwide) have enabled us to deal
with such situations more effectively than most of our competitors. As a
result, we believe we have better access
to input materials in short supply than most of our competitors. For
example, we believe we were able to secure a
substantial part of oriented Tedlar® supply for our production in 2009
and
2010.

Due to the introduction of the “AAA” and “APA/FPA” product
families in
2009, which are made of alternative
raw materials, we have become much less dependent on the supply of PVF
foils. In addition, DuPont is in the
process of significantly expanding its PVF foil production capacities by
2012, which we expect to largely
alleviate the supply issues we observed in 2009 and 2010 for our “TPT”
products. This should allow us to
address the excess demand observed in 2010 and to benefit from expected
future market growth.

--------------------------------

Recent Developments

As of January 1, 2011, the Chinese subsidiary CICM became fully
operational as distributor and re-seller of the
Company’s backsheets in China. Previously, a related party (no member of
the Group) acted as distributor and
re-seller for a material part of Isovoltaic’s backsheets sold to Chinese
customers, thus capturing certain sales and
margins from a mark-up on the prices, for which the Company sold its
backsheets to such entity. From 2011
onwards, the Company will sell all products to Chinese customers directly
or via its subsidiary CICM and
therefore all effects on such sales and respective margins will be
included in the consolidated financial statements
going forward.

--------------------------------

Summary of Risk Factors

Neben dem üblichen Bla-Bla bzw. dem normalen unternehmerischen Risiko
(d.h. die Risikohinweise die man überall liest)
sind folgende Punkte spezifisch:

Demand for our products depends largely on governmental subsidies for
photovoltaic energy and the
regulatory environment. Changes in scope of subsidies may have an adverse
impact on demand for our
products.

Nach Fukushima vermutlich nicht mehr sehr relevant.

The Selling Shareholders control and, subsequent to the Offering, will
continue to control management and
operations and may act in their own interests, which could differ from the
interests of other shareholders.

Each of the Selling Shareholders also holds one registered share (
Namensaktie) in the Company with the right to
nominate one member of the supervisory board (Aufsichtsrat) of the
Company. While no Selling Shareholder has
made use of its right, there can be no assurance that it may not do so in
the future. Such special right is associated
with ownership of a registered share and independent of the overall
shareholding — it may thus also be exercised
by a shareholder holding only this one share. Members of the supervisory
board nominated by shareholders must
not be more than 1/3 of all members of the supervisory board.


Technological changes in the photovoltaic energy industry or our failure
to develop and integrate new
technologies could render our backsheets uncompetitive or obsolete.

Nachdem sie nur dieses eine Produkt haben nur zu wahr.


The majority of our costs are denominated in Euro. We purchase some of our
raw materials and pre-products in
USD. A substantial part of our sales, in particular to many Asian
customers, is effected in USD or, if to Chinese
customers via the Chinese subsidiary CICM, in CNY. We compete with
companies whose costs are incurred
primarily in currencies other than the Euro. Any strengthening of the Euro
against those currencies increases our
sales prices translated into those currencies relative to our competitors,
which could have a negative impact on
our competitiveness relative to such competitors unless we lower our sales
prices. As a result, a strengthening of
the Euro against those currencies could have a material adverse effect on
our business and results of operations.

We engage in limited hedging activities (fair value hedging) with respect
to currency fluctuations. Changes in
exchange rates on the translation of the earnings in foreign currencies
into Euros are directly reflected in our
income statement and affect our business, financial condition and results
of operations.


In recent years, the market for backsheets was dominated by five companies
who accounted for 88% of total
market sales in 2009 (Source: Frost & Sullivan). Attractive growth rates
have recently attracted market entrants, which are either small companies
satisfying local demand (predominantly in Asia) or large
multinational chemical companies, such as 3M, Mitsubishi and Honeywell. In
the future suppliers to backsheet
producers as well as solar module manufacturers may also decide to enter
the backsheet market or to produce
backsheets.

Our backsheets must meet stringent quality requirements and may contain
undetected defects, especially when
first introduced. For example, our backsheets may contain defects that
remain undetected until after they are
shipped or installed because we cannot test for all possible scenarios.
These defects could cause us to incur
significant costs, including costs to repair or replace products, divert
the attention of our engineering personnel
from product development efforts and significantly affect our customer
relations and business reputation. If we
deliver defective products or if there is a perception that our products
contain errors or defects, our credibility
and the market acceptance could materially suffer thus resulting in lower
sales. If our customers do not detect
defects before a solar module is finally laminated, a defective backsheet,
although representing only up to 7% of
production costs, may render the entire solar module unsuitable for use.
In addition, we could be subject to
product liability claims and could experience increased costs and expenses
related to significant warranty claims,
product liability claims or other legal judgments against us, or a
widespread product recall by us or a solar
module manufacturer.

Solar modules are expected to have a useful life of 25 years and more. Our
backsheets thus need to maintain their
functionality for such period. We cannot ensure that our products, in
particular those for which no long term
historical field data is available, will actually maintain their (full)
functionality over their entire expected useful
life. We may incur significant costs for either legal or customer
relationship reasons if our products should not
meet warranted technical and chemical parameters or perform as expected.
In addition, this may divert the
attention of our engineering personnel from product development efforts
and significantly negatively affect our
customer relations and business reputation, and thereby our business,
financial condition and results of operation.

----------------------

Pricing trends

In 2009, several factors caused a decline of overall solar module demand,
inter alia, the cut to feed-in tariffs in
Spain, the negative impact of the global recession, and the lack of
project financing due to the credit crisis.
Consequently, many solar module manufacturers reduced selling prices of
their modules significantly, which also
impacted the backsheet market. Our average selling price per square meter
of backsheet sold decreased by
approx. 10% in 2009 compared to 2008 and approx. 22% in 2010 compared to
2009. The decrease in the 2010 average selling price can mainly be
attributed to the increasing share of our more price competitive
polyamidebased
backsheets (“AAA” and “APA/FPA” product families) in our product
portfolio. The “AAA” and “APA/
FPA” product families accounted for 2% of revenues in 2009 but for 39%
in
2010. The average selling price of
the “TPT” product family decreased by around 8% in 2010, while the
average
selling price of the “AAA” and
“APA/FPA” product families remained largely stable. We believe that
prices
for backsheets have been more
resilient than for other components of the solar module, due to the
importance of backsheets to solar modules and
the low cost of backsheets relative to the total production cost of the
solar module. However, as long as the
pricing pressure continues to exist throughout the industry, we expect to
be affected, though to a lesser degree.

Based on the current trading and order backlog, we observe rather stable
prices for our “TPT”, “AAA” and
“APA/FPA” product families in the first months of 2011. Furthermore,
we
will continue to work on improving
functionalities of products and to add additional value to products, e.g.
backsheets for backside contacted solar
modules, by which we expect to mitigate the price pressure to a certain
extent.

-------------------

Operational efficiency

In an environment of decreasing selling prices for backsheets and high raw
material costs, operational efficiency
is critical. We are continuously improving our production processes and
machinery as well as improving raw
material utilization in the production process. Therefore, despite a
decrease in the average price per square meter
of backsheet sold we were able to increase our EBIT Margin from 24.5% in
2009 to 28.5% in 2010. Operational
efficiency will continue to be an important factor going forward affecting
our results of operations.


Increase of value chain: Sales and distribution in China

Until the end of 2010, a material part of our products sold to Chinese
customers was sold via a related party as
Chinese re-seller. Such revenues and EBIT-contribution are not reflected
in the Pro Forma Financial Information
or the IFRS Consolidated Financial Statements 2010 as such re-seller was
not part of the Group in 2010. Based
on information of the former Chinese re-seller provided to the Company,
the Group’s consolidated revenues
would have increased by approx. €14.5 million and consolidated EBIT
would
have increased by approx.
€13 million if hypothetically consolidating the former Chinese re-seller
into the Pro Forma Financial
Information. From 2011 onwards, the Company will sell all products to
Chinese costumers directly or via its own
Chinese subsidiary CICM and therefore all effects on such sales and
respective margins will be included in the
consolidated financial statements going forward.

-----------------------

Supported by a continued positive market environment for the solar sector as a whole and the increasing solar
module production of Isovoltaic’s customer base in particular in China, the Group has been able to strongly
increase its revenues in the first two months of the current financial year compared to the same months of the
previous financial year. This growth also reflects the continued success of the Group’s innovative polyamide
based products (“AAA” and “APA/FPA”) and a stable pricing environment year-to-date, both for “TPT” as well
as polyamide based products. Given the positive development since the beginning of the year until February 28,
2011, the current order backlog and the positive industry momentum, Isovoltaic believes to be in a good position
to show strong revenue growth rates for 2011 and to show at least margin levels comparable to the financial year
2010, whereby the Group expects to benefit from the positive impact from the new Chinese subsidiary as outlined above. The Group also believes to have a higher degree of visibility on current year revenues compared
to previous years, benefitting from 5 to 12 months contracts that it has agreed with certain key customers. Based
on its current trading and order backlog, the Group expects that the polyamide based products (“AAA” and
“APA/FPA”) will account for a higher share of revenues in 2011 than in 2010. As supply bottlenecks observed in
2010 through shortages of PVF for Isovoltaic’s “TPT” products have now been resolved to a significant extent
through the new polyamide products, the Group’s growth will be partially driven by excess demand observed in
2010 that can now be more efficiently addressed. Growth and margin expectations depend on a sustained positive
solar market environment in the second half of 2011.

For the years beyond 2011, the Group believes, based on its competitive strengths as well as its exposure to the
fast growing Chinese market, to be in a good position to grow in line with the backsheet market, with some
upside potential from the introduction of new innovative product generations, such as backsheets for backside
contacted solar modules and flexible thin-film solar modules. The growth of the backsheet market will be driven
by solar module production and thus indirectly by newly installed solar generation capacity. Margins are
expected to benefit from a continued shift to Isovoltaic’s more price competitive, but higher margin polyamide
products. The development in the years beyond 2011 is dependent on the further growth of solar module
production, the subsidy systems in key markets, sustained and effective market entry barriers as well as price
developments.

----------------------------

Backsheets provide a vapor barrier to protect the semiconductor circuit in the solar module from moisture and
other environmental influences such as weathering and ultraviolet light, physical protection of the wiring and
other sensitive components, electrical insulation and stability or flexibility (depending on the application) to the module. Therefore, backsheets also need to be thermally conductive from the inside to the outside as light not
absorbed by the photovoltaic material would heat up the cell and reduce its efficiency. These functions need to be
rendered continuously and with stable performance over the entire lifetime of the solar module, considering that
module manufacturers typically provide 20 years and more warranty for their products. In order to fulfill the
above mentioned requirements backsheets need to consist, in contrary to encapsulants, of multiple layers of
material adding up to the required functionality.

Backsheets for crystalline silicon solar modules are predominantly made of polymers while most thin-film
modules, in particular the currently prevailing cadmium telluride cell thin-film and architectural modules, use
glass panels as backside cover. According to Frost & Sullivan, in 2009 the total market size for backsheets was
USD 493.2 million, out of which revenues of USD 446 million (or 90.4%) were achieved with backsheets using
polymers and USD 47 million using glass.

Backsheets

Frost & Sullivan estimated that the backsheets segment of the photovoltaic materials market will grow from USD
493 million in 2009 to approx. USD 1,626 million by the end of 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of
approx. 35%. Although the overall market dynamics from 2009 to 2013 appear realistically estimated, the
Company believes that Frost & Sullivan in their study (published in July 2010) might not have sufficiently
considered the significantly increased demand for solar modules in the second half of 2010 and thus growth in
the covered years might be allocated differently.


--------------------------------


Competition and Competitors

Based on data from Frost & Sullivan, the Company is the market leader in the backsheet market with a market
share of 35% in terms of revenues in 2009. The main competitors of the Company are Coveme, Madico, Krempel
and Toyo Aluminum who had a market share based on revenues in 2009 of 18%, 15%, 11% and 9%, respectively
(Source: Frost & Sullivan). Thus the top five market participants have a combined market share of more than
85% (Source: Frost & Sullivan). In our opinion, other suppliers of backsheets include a number of large
multinationals such as 3M, Mitsubishi and Honeywell, who address the backsheet market based on their competence in the production of polymer films, certain regional companies such as Dunmore and Flexcon, as
well as emerging players in China such as China Lucky and Jolywood and other companies predominantly from
Asia.

Among the larger participants in the backsheet market, the Company believes it is the only market participant
purely focusing on backsheets while the other participants offer backsheets only as one segment of their polymer
or glass products.

Competitiveness is based on a number of factors, of which the Company believes the following to be the most
relevant: product performance and quality, customer service and long term partnerships with customers for
product development, proven operational track record, price, continuous product innovations and timing delivery
and reliable supply.


-----------------------------

  

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