Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ)

First Quarter 2012 Results

• Solar module shipments were 343 MW, compared to 436 MW in the fourth quarter 2011.
• Net revenue was $325.8 million, compared to $474.1 million in the fourth quarter 2011.
• Gross margin was 7.7%, compared to 8.7% in the fourth quarter 2011.
• Diluted loss per share was $0.49, compared to $1.39 in the fourth quarter 2011.
• Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash balances at the end of the quarter was $625.2 million, compared to $522.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2011.

Michael G. Potter, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Canadian Solar, commented: "Our results reflect the continued successful execution of our near-term and long-term business strategy. This is evidenced by the improvement of our gross margin after factoring out one-time items, the geographic diversification of our revenue mix and our ability to generate positive operating cash flow in a seasonally slow quarter. We are very pleased with the continued progress of our total solutions business and expect it will enhance our financial results as we move through 2012 and beyond. We continue to evaluate costs across our global organization. Canadian Solar has always strived to maintain a lean organization and to minimize unnecessary costs. We want to insure that we are deploying our resources in the right markets and against the right opportunities. Given the current operating environment, it is clear that strict financial discipline is essential to success and we believe diligence in financial matters will separate the winners from the rest. Canadian Solar plans to be a winner as we build on our current market leading position and strong momentum in our total solutions business."

Business Outlook

The Company's business outlook is based on management's current views with respect to operating and market conditions, its current order book, and the challenging global financing environment, which continues to result in customer demand uncertainty. Management's views and estimates are subject to change without notice.

For the second quarter of 2012, shipments are expected to be in the range of approximately 430 MW to 450 MW, with gross margin expected to be between 8% and 10%. The Company reiterates its annual guidance to ship approximately 1,800 MW to 2,000 MW of solar products in 2012.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, remarked: "Canadian Solar continues to hit its stride as others fall by the wayside. We are highly confident in the prospects for our business and in our ability to drive further manufacturing efficiencies. We expect that our calculated efforts to invest in the areas of business and in the geographies where we see the greatest potential will help us to deliver improved results in the quarters ahead. We are benefiting from customers' ongoing global shift to quality and to tier-one solar companies with global delivery and service capabilities. Our strong track record of performance combined with our unwavering commitment to providing our customers with innovative, high performance, fairly priced solar solutions differentiates Canadian Solar and we believe is helping us to gain market share in key solar markets worldwide. We have a stable balance sheet and excellent support from major financial institutions worldwide, which will allow us to continue to capture both major project opportunities and smaller scale customer wins."

ONTARIO, Canada, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies and Bank of China (Canada) and Bank of China, New York Branch ("Bank of China"), one of the world's largest banks, today announced that they have signed a ground breaking financing agreement to provide a C$120 Million construction loan facility for solar power plants in Ontario, Canada. The loan facility will be used to support the construction of solar power projects owned by Canadian Solar and which are expected to be built during 2012, 2013, and into 2014.

"We are delighted to announce this agreement with Bank of China, a long time banking partner to Canadian Solar. Their strength and reputation as a global bank combined with their competitive terms makes them an ideal partner to support the growth of our project business in Ontario. This agreement also represents an important step towards our goal of generating over 40% of our revenue from total solutions in 2013 and beyond," said Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar's Chairman and CEO.

Canadian Solar continues to source innovative new banking partners to finance its Ontario and its global pipelines and initiatives.

ONTARIO, Canada, April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", "we" or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar companies, today announced the launch of a dedicated Authorized Reseller Program focused on Europe, the Middle East and Africa ("EMEA").

Canadian Solar plans to actively support its EMEA reseller partners with extensive technical product training, professional sales and marketing support, and many other benefits, including access to a valuable ongoing qualified lead program, and an Authorized Reseller Starter Kit, tailored marketing materials, and product samples. Program partners will also benefit from a comprehensive co-marketing program with joint events, Public Relations, advertising and online marketing activities.

The Authorized Reseller Program will target EMEA professionals that want to offer Canadian Solar's industry leading, high-quality, high-performance solar products. Only registered companies will be able to take advantage of the exclusive new program.

Yan Zhuang, Senior Corporate Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing of Canadian Solar, commented, "Canadian Solar's dedicated new EMEA Authorized Reseller Program will enable us to even more effectively support our numerous long-term partners, while at the same time help attract new partners in the growing EMEA region. We spent a lot of time developing our program, including researching successful programs from other industries. It made perfect sense for Canadian Solar to lead the way with this innovative effort for the EMEA region. We are excited about and fully committed to our Authorized Reseller Program as it is designed to be mutually beneficial to our partners and to Canadian Solar's success."

Fourth Quarter 2011 Results

• Solar module shipments were 436 MW, an increase of 23% from 355 MW in the third quarter 2011.
• Net revenue was $474.1 million, compared to $499.6 million in the third quarter 2011.
• Gross margin was 8.7%, compared to 2.4% in the third quarter 2011.
• Diluted loss per share was $1.39, compared to diluted loss per share of $1.02 in the third quarter 2011.
• Operating cash flow was approximately $48.9 million, compared to approximately $94 million in the third quarter 2011.
• Inventory balance at the end of the quarter was $296.6 million, compared to $406.0 million at the end of the third quarter 2011.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, remarked: "Canadian Solar continued to execute and thrive in a highly challenging global market and benefit from customers flight to quality. Our ability to remain focused and to provide customers with innovative, high-quality solar energy solutions, with top notch support, helped us grow our market share. Shipments for the full year 2011 were up 65%, with a 23% increase in the fourth quarter. The strength was widely distributed, as we had a very good trend of wins at major clients. As for specific markets, we had positive growth in the U.S., Europe, China and India in 2011. China has been our fastest growing market given the lower base it started at, with forecasts calling for a potential 3 GW to 5 GW opportunity in 2012. Importantly, we made substantial progress in our strategy of building our downstream total solutions business and currently have more opportunities than we could possibly address, which is allowing us to be selective. We are excited about this area of our business because it clearly differentiates Canadian Solar, it helps increase our visibility, and leverages our expertise and global brand. Further, the specialization of the solutions business makes it a higher margin business. Our success was illustrated in December 2011 when we entered into a purchase and sale agreement with TransCanada, in which they will acquire from us in 2012 and 2013, nine utility-scale power plants in Ontario valued at approximately C$470 million. We see similar opportunities for our solutions business in many other countries including, India, Japan, the U.S. and China."

Michael G. Potter, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Canadian Solar, commented: "During the fourth quarter, we continued our emphasis on working capital management, specifically working to reduce inventory and control receivables levels. We were successful in reducing our inventory balance by $106.3 million or 26% in the fourth quarter. We are currently examining our worldwide cost structure to ensure it is properly aligned with our expected shift towards more project business and changes in our targeted geographies. By closely managing our operating expenses, we are confident we can continue to excel in a challenging global market as the industry continues to mature."

Business Outlook

The Company's business outlook is based on management's current views with respect to operating and market conditions, its current order book, and the challenging global financing environment, which continues to result in customer demand uncertainty. Management's views and estimates are subject to change without notice.

For the first quarter of 2012, shipments are expected to be in the range of approximately 340 MW to 350 MW, with gross margin expected to be between 5% and 8%. Despite the challenging global financing environment, which continues to result in customer demand uncertainty for the whole year 2012, the Company expects to ship approximately 1,800 MW to 2,000 MW of solar products. The Company will continue to actively manage manufacturing utilization, inventory and mix levels, and operating expenses as demand levels fluctuate. The Company will also continue to explore ways to increase manufacturing efficiency and yield and to lower processing and consumable costs where opportunities exist.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, remarked: "Canadian Solar is in an excellent position as we pursue future growth. In addition to our global brand, strong track record of innovation, quality and service, we have one of the most efficient manufacturing models in the industry. We expect to further improve our financial ratios moving forward as we gain more flexibility to drive our total solutions business. Our goal remains to expand our engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and solar systems kits business to approximately more than 25% of total revenue in 2012 and greater than 40% of revenue in 2013. We are a leader in most markets we serve. Importantly, our commitment to the Canadian market has given us a significant competitive advantage not only in the attractive Canadian market but also in the U.S. market, as we have a fully operational manufacturing base nearby."

ONTARIO, Canada, February 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar companies, today updated its guidance for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011. The updated guidance is based on Canadian Solar's current views with respect to operating and market conditions, its current order book and customers' forecasts, all of which are subject to change. The updated guidance may also become subject to adjustment based upon completion of the full-year reporting process, and audited results could differ materially from the estimates provided below.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, Canadian Solar expects solar module shipments to increase to approximately 430 MW to 440 MW. This is significantly higher than the original fourth quarter guidance of approximately 340 MW to 360 MW provided on November 22, 2011, and compares to shipments of 287 MW and 355 MW in the second and third quarter of 2011, respectively. The significantly higher shipment level in the fourth quarter of 2011 reflects stronger than expected demand from customers. The Company expects its gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2011 to be in line with prior guidance of 5% to 8%. For the fiscal year 2011 shipments are expected to be in the range of 1,316 to 1,326 MW, compared to prior guidance in the range of 1,200 to 1,300 MW.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, remarked: "Canadian Solar continues to successfully execute on our business strategy. We are increasing shipments to customers in key markets worldwide, while at the same time aggressively reducing our manufacturing costs. In the market place we are winning by stressing our global brand, product quality, high performance, reliability and customer service. We are seeing continued gains in both solar module shipments to installers and in shipments related to our expanding project business. As an illustration of our business momentum, we recently signed agreement for Canadian Solar to develop and sell 9 fully-operational and commissioned utility-scale solar projects in the Province of Ontario, which are expected to contribute to the Company's revenue and profitability between late 2012 and mid-2013."

Third Quarter 2011 Results