Shares of SunEdison (SUNE) were up nearly 12% following the announcement of the departure of its chief operating officer, Francisco Perez Gundin.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released Thursday, the company said Gundin's departure was effective on Jan. 14. The reasons for his departure were not provided in the filing and SunEdison did not immediately respond to requests for more details and news about his possible successor. Real Money will provide updates should that information become available.
Troubles have arisen for SunEdison and its yieldcos, TerraForm Power (TERP) and TerraForm Global (GLBL), since SunEdison announced plans to acquire Vivint Solar (VSLR) in July.
Investors and analysts questioned SunEdison's financial capacity to make the acquistion, as well as the perception of Vivint's lower credit quality portfolio of residential projects being out of step with SunEdison's commercial projects. Even more troubling was SunEdison's plans to push Vivint's projects on TerraForm Power through "take or pay" contracts.
Earlier this month, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, which announced a stake in TerraForm Power in December, filed suit against SunEdison for "breaches of fiduciary duty" related to the acquisition.
Appaloosa Management announced its stake in the company following the announcement of several changes to TerraForm Power's board and management structure in November.
Coincidentally, among the changes that occurred during the November meeting was Gundin's resignation from the board. According to a filing with the SEC, Gundin resigned from the board because he disagreed with actions taken by the board, including replacing members of TerraForm Power's corporate governance committee, and the appointment of SunEdison chief financial officer Brian Wuebbals as president and CEO of TerraForm Power.
