• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Energy

Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Rumored to Get SunEdison Board Seat

What should investors make of rumors that Greenlight Capital is getting a seat on the board of one of its worst holdings?
By CARLETON ENGLISH Jan 25, 2016 | 11:14 AM EST
Stocks quotes in this article: SUNE, TERP, GLBL, VSLR

SunEdison (SUNE) has been a troubling investment for many -- though perhaps none have been as hurt by it as David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital. Now, in an interesting twist, the New York-based hedge fund may be getting a seat on SunEdison's board.

On Sunday night, the Wall Street Journal reported Greenlight Capital is set to appoint a new director to the troubled solar energy company's board, citing people familiar with the matter. The announcement could come in the next week.

Representatives from Greenlight Capital declined to respond to the report when asked by Real Money. Similarly, representatives from SunEdison declined to comment on what it called "rumors and speculation."

Though, sometimes rumors and speculation can be proven true.

As of Sep. 30, Greenlight Capital holds a 5.8% stake in SunEdison. In November, it was revealed via 13-F filings that Einhorn reduced his stake in the company by 25% during the third quarter. While the shares of SunEdison had already fallen steeply following its announcement of its plans to acquire Vivint Solar (VLSR), they dropped over 30% in one day on news of Einhorn paring down his position.

Since then, wild daily swings in the stock price have not been uncommon as the company announced several board and management changes to SunEdison and its yieldcos TerraForm Power (TERP) and TerraForm Global (GLBL), revised terms to its plan to acquire Vivint Solar as well as measures to shore up liquidity. The changes to TerraForm Power's board, coupled with the Vivint deal were enough to make another activist investor, David Tepper of Appaloosa Managment, to file suit against SunEdison for "breach of fiduciary duty." This too has weighed on the stock price of the family of companies.

Einhorn's rumored increased involvement with SunEdison could certainly be interesting as his fund is coming off of a difficult year, which was in no way helped by the solar company.

At October 2014's Robin Hood conference, Einhorn shared his conviction in SunEdison by calling it a "well run, financially savvy company."

At the time, Einhorn spoke favorably of SunEdison's relationship with its yieldcs by saying that before that structure, SunEdison had to absorb all of the risks of their projects, which meant they could only eke out a small return. By tranferring the risks to a "low cost of capital" buyer, SunEdison benefits. (Of course, Tepper sees this as a problem for the yieldcos.)

If the rumors prove true and Greenlight Capital gets a seat on the board, it will be interesting to see how Einhorn responds to SunEdison's new set of challeges.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

Employees of TheStreet are restricted from owning individual securities.

TAGS: Investing | U.S. Equity | Energy

More from Energy

Occidental Petroleum Continues to Target Higher Prices

Bruce Kamich
May 16, 2022 2:52 PM EDT

Here's our first price target and our long term objective.

Diamondback's FANGs Could Dull in the Short-Term

Bruce Kamich
May 13, 2022 9:30 AM EDT

Let's check out the charts of this oil producer.

Trading for a Bounce -- Not a Bottom

Peter Tchir
May 10, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

Here's my thinking on the Nasdaq, bonds, energy, commodities and crypto right now.

If You Insist on Trading This Brutal Market, Don't Get Lazy With Your Stops

Bob Byrne
May 10, 2022 8:30 AM EDT

That word of warning applies to ETFs and individual stocks such as Intercept Pharmaceuticals, which we outline a trading strategy for here.

American Electric Power Could Correct Lower

Bruce Kamich
May 10, 2022 8:07 AM EDT

Let's see what the charts and indicators look like.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 07:14 PM EDT PAUL PRICE

    A New, Very Scary Movie

  • 08:51 AM EDT PAUL PRICE

    Advice From the Future...

  • 12:20 PM EDT PAUL PRICE

    A Blast From the Past Regarding Bitcoin

  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2022 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login