All outside directors at Hanwha Solutions will support a rights issue by buying company shares. Board chairman Jang Jae-su (장재수) and outside directors Song Gwang-ho (송광호), Bae Seong-ho (배성호) and Lee A-young (이아영) said they agreed on the need for the rights issue announced by the company on March 26 and voluntarily expressed their intention to buy shares, it said on Sunday. With all outside directors joining, board-level support has been formalised following executives' declaration to buy shares.

Jang said, "I sympathise with the internal and external difficulties the company faces," adding, "Because stabilising the financial structure, defending creditworthiness and making pre-emptive investments to secure mid- to long-term competitiveness must go hand in hand, I understand that this rights issue is an inevitable choice, so I will join the purchase of Hanwha Solutions shares as an outside director."

Executives had earlier moved to buy shares as part of responsible management. Kim Dong-kwan (김동관), chief executive of the Strategy Division and vice chairman, has said he would buy about 81,500 shares worth about 3.0 billion won based on the March 26 closing price. Nam Jeong-woon (남정운), head of the Chemicals Division, and Park Seung-deok (박승덕), head of the Qcells Division, also plan to buy about 16,000 shares each worth about 600,000,000 won, separately from employee stock purchases tied to the rights issue. The amounts correspond to their annual salaries last year.

The three plan to buy shares in stages from March 30, and other executives are expected to join voluntarily. At the time, Nam said, "Through this capital increase, we will ensure that Hanwha Solutions achieves sustainable growth and, furthermore, completes improvements in profitability so that we can repay this by enhancing shareholder value."

The rights issue targets about 2.4 trillion won in funds. Of that, the company will use 1.5 trillion won to repay debt and 900.0 billion won for pilot verification of mass production of tandem cells, building a TOPCon cell production line and commercialising tandem at the gigawatt-scale. The goal also includes improving the financial structure after the slowdown in the global solar and chemicals market conditions that continued through last year.