The agreement, which has been mooted for several weeks, means Hong Kong-listed SPI has emerged from relative obscurity to take a central role in the painstaking rescue of one of the biggest names in the global solar industry.

Under the terms of the deal with Wuxi Suntech’s administrator, SPI will also pay $25m to Wuxi Guolian, a company part-owned the municipal authorities in the city where Suntech is based which has been instrumental in the process.

Guolian