Despite recoil from minority shareholders, Hanwha now has a majority stake in REC Silicon. The majority share was acquired in early September by Anchor ASa Norwegian company that includes Hanwha Solutions and Hanwha Corp. represents. Hanwha acquired all outstanding shares in REC Silicon at the offer price of NOK 2.2 (US$0.21) per share.
This puts a temporary peg in the ongoing saga involving REC Silicon, formerly one of the world’s largest polysilicon producers. The Norwegian company operated a solar polysilicon plant in Moses Lake, Washington, before market events forced its closure in 2018. In 2022, Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group became REC Silicon’s largest shareholder, providing funds to restart production and a secure polysilicon supply contract to the Hanwha Qcells solar panel manufacturing plant in Georgia. REC Silicon was in the process of restarting polysilicon production in Moses Lake when it abruptly halted all operations in late 2024.
REC Silicon stated that it could not continue operations in Moses Lake after receiving a “failed qualification test” from its “customer.” At the time, Hanwha was considered REC Silicon’s sole customer as it had a ten-year exclusive supply agreement.
In April 2025, Hanwha sent a cash offer to acquire all outstanding shares of REC Silicon and take the company private. REC Silicon’s board of directors, largely represented by Hanwha seats, “unanimously” recommended shareholders accept Hanwha’s deal. Norwegian minority shareholders very quickly expressed their opposition to the deal and wrote a letter to ‘stop the stealing’.
Water Street Capital, an investment firm representing minority shareholders, alleged that Hanwha made misleading statements to REC Silicon’s other shareholders by “failing to disclose that it sabotaged operations at the Moses Lake plant, laid off the plant’s experienced workers, continually changed production procedures and deliberately caused REC Silicon to lose a critical failed to pass a test of the quality of its product as a pretext for terminating the ten-year supply contract.” When REC Silicon’s share price collapsed after the factory closed in December 2024, Water Street says Hanwha was able to launch a takeover bid for “pennies on the dollar.”
At an annual general meeting in June, REC Silicon shareholders voted in favor of a new board of directors, which would include Norwegian representatives and remove Hanwha’s names. Minority shareholders also requested an internal investigation.
But now it seems things have been ironed out. Hanwha’s takeover bid was approved and Hanwha proposed new board members apparently with Water Street’s blessing. Hanwha said the new board “emphasizes stability and prior knowledge of the company’s operations.” REC Silicon announced on October 15 that Norwegian courts ruled to reject minority shareholders’ internal investigation request in June.
Meanwhile, REC Silicon is still treading water as an operational company. Earlier this month, Anchor AS REC provided Silicon with one A $7 million short-term loan to fund the company’s “urgent operating capital needs.”
“REC Silicon does not have sufficient available cash to meet future debt service and other anticipated operating cash flow needs without the continued support of its major shareholder, Hanwha, or additional sources of capital,” REC Silicon said in a statement. “It will therefore soon require additional financing beyond this loan, either from Hanwha or from other capital sources, none of which has yet been completed or guaranteed.”
This loan is separate from previous loans provided by Hanwha International LLCwhich now exceed $103 million.
No announcements have been made yet on whether or not polysilicon operations will resume at Moses Lake.
