(Bloomberg) -- Lumio, a privately owned provider of residential solar panels, filed bankruptcy with a plan to sell its business to its primary lender, White Oak Global Advisors LLC.
The Utah-based company filed Chapter 11 on Tuesday in Delaware listing assets and liabilities each of between $100 million and $500 million. The sale to White Oak is in the form of a $100 million credit bid, subject to better offers, Lumio said in a statement. That means White Oak will use debt it’s owed toward the purchase of the solar business.
The bankruptcy filing is the latest sign of trouble for the US solar industry, which has been squeezed by subsidy changes in California and high interest rates, making solar panels less affordable to homeowners. Lumio sought court protection weeks after SunPower Corp. filed Chapter 11.
Lumio said its operations won’t be interrupted by the bankruptcy filing and that White Oak “intends to offer significant equity ownership to the company’s employees” if selected as the winning bidder. White Oak has also agreed to provide $8 million in Chapter 11 financing to fund the business during the bankruptcy, the company said.
Lumio has filed customary motions to continue paying employee wages and other ordinary business expenses as it starts operating in Chapter 11. The company has about 1,250 workers after laying off about 100 full-time employees in early August, according to court documents.
The case is Lumio Holdings Inc, number 24-11916, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
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(Update includes timing of layoffs in fifth paragraph.)
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