The international capital markets were again subject to strong fluctuations in the first half of 2010. Especially the second quarter was characterized by considerable uncertainty among investors – mainly caused by the financial instability of the Euro zone and by the high level of indebtedness of some European countries. At the beginning of the third quarter the mood brightened somewhat. The background to this was the economic development that turned out better than expected both in the Euro zone and in the U.S., as well as the stabilization of the European financial markets.

The DAX closed at the cut-off date (30 June 2010) on 5,966 points and thus dropped only slightly in comparison with the opening price on 4 January 2010 (5,976 points) by -0.2 (H1 2009: -1.0) percent. The TecDAX, on the other hand, showed a great deal more volatility. It lost a total of 10.2 (H1 2009: +18.2) percent in the first half of the year 2010 closing on 30 June 2010 on 734 (4 Jan. 2010: 818) points.

The solar stocks were not able to escape the general development of the capital markets and were additionally pressured by the persistent discussion on the amendment of the German law on renewable energy sources (EEG): Only once a concrete decision had been taken could the values recover towards the end of the second quarter. Thus, the closing price of the SolarWorld stock on 30 June 2010 was at 9.16 (4 Jan. 2010: 15.20) €. The highest price the stock reached in the period under review was 16.61 €, the lowest one was 7.99 €.

The eleventh ordinary Annual General Meeting (AGM) of SolarWorld AG on 20 May 2010 adopted all the items on the agenda with a large majority. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board were discharged with 99.9 percent. In total, more than 1,000 shareholders and shareholder representatives were present constituting 42.36 percent of the voting capital. The dividend for shareholders increased for the sixth time in succession: For fiscal year 2009 an increased dividend of 0.16 (for fiscal year 2008: 0.15) € was approved. The payout took place on 21 May 2010. The largest portion of the balance sheet profit was allocated to revenue reserves of the SolarWorld AG, thus forming a sound basis for the worldwide group growth. The system of Management Board compensation was also approved by the AGM with a large majority. With this item of the agenda management had followed the provisions of the new law on the appropriateness of Management Board compensation. Already in the previous year the shareholders had approved the capping of the salaries of the Management Board members, thus sending out a signal regarding the level of Board salaries in Germany  Group Interim Report First Half 2009/Resolution to cap Management Board salaries (pdf, 0.6 MB)

The capital stock remained unchanged in the period under review being divided into 111,720,000 bearer shares of no par value with an imputed nominal value of 1.00 €. On 12 May the Management Board of SolarWorld AG decided to make use of the authorization granted by the AGM to acquire treasury stock pursuant to § 71 Sec. 1 No. 8 AktG (German Stock Corporation Act) of up to ten percent of the capital stock of the company. By the cut-off date of 30 June 2010 a total of 4,817,723 stocks were bought, which is equivalent to a share of 4.31 percent. The authorization is limited until 20 November 2010. In order to increase transparency vis-à-vis our shareholders and stakeholders we publish the information on the respective daily trade transactions under www.solarworld.de/treasurystock

With effect from 1 June 2010 Black Rock Inc. reduced its shareholding in SolarWorld AG to 2.11 percent. The Chairman of the Management Board of SolarWorld AG, Dr. Ing. h.c. Frank Asbeck, increased his shareholding to 25.06 percent on 6 June 2010.

In the first half of 2010 we further intensified our capital market contacts. For example, we participated in a number of road shows and conferences and conducted individual talks with analysts, investors and shareholders in Europe and the U.S.. The objective is to improve service and transparency for our stakeholders. To this end we are also continuously expanding our Internet presence. Our online report for fiscal year 2009 was endowed with a Gold Award by the League of American Communications (LACP). For this report which can be downloaded under the address annualreport2009.solarworld.de/en.html a specially user-friendly navigation structure was developed.