(Yicai Global) Nov. 12 -- Chinese state-owned wafer maker Zhonghuan Semiconductor plans to pick up a 28.8 percent stake in a solar panel-making spinoff of SunPower, a unit under France's Total Group, in order to enhance development of its solar silicon business.

The Tianjin-based firm, which focuses primarily on the renewable energy sector, will pay USD298 million for the stake in Maxeon Solar Technologies and become its second-largest shareholder, the buyer said in a statement yesterday. The target's largest shareholder will be Total Group with 39.2 percent once the spinoff is complete.

Combining Maxeon technology with Zhonghuan's photovoltaic monocrystalline silicon will enhance the latter's solar products and push development of the industry overall, the statement added, saying it should also lead to increased sales.

A 34-year-old company from Silicon Valley, SunPower is one of the world's leading providers of solar cells and panels. It plans to split its overseas panel manufacturing business into a new company, which will take over its Singapore headquarters and research facilities and factories in Malaysia, the Philippines, China, Mexico and France, as well as sales arms in more than a dozen countries.

The firm listed on the Nasdaq in 2005, and in 2016 Total paid USD1.4 billion for a 60 percent stake. The Paris-based investor is one of the world's largest oil companies and has more than 100,000 employees operating in 130 countries.

Editor: James Boynton