Bronte Capital Questions Trina Solar for the Second Time

On Wednesday, Bronte Capital published a second piece questioning Chinese solar company Trina Solar TSL. Bronte Capital cited concerns with the management and the company's capital expenditure. Bronte Capital writes, "Peter Mak…the head of the Audit Committee of Trina Solar…was the CFO of A-Power…A-Power is currently suspended with director resignations and other red-flags but the management deny it was fraudulent." On capital expenditure, Bronte writes, "We found it hard to reconcile their capital expenditure with their capacity. The company has been massively expanding their capacity and that would normally take some considerable investment in machines and other infrastructure." Further, Bronte states, "The biggest red-flag I had with Trina Solar was their strange capital management. Trina had—at year end—over 750 million dollars in cash…the cash yielded maybe 50bps…the money borrowed was maybe 8-10 times as expensive. In 2009 for instance, the company borrowed $537 million in the short term market, repaid almost precisely the same amount and had substantial cash balances the whole time." Trina Solar is currently up roughly 0.75% in pre-market trading. Trina Solar closed at 14.72 on Tuesday. Read more here.