Tenesol has operations in 18 countries and solar panel manufacturing facilities in France and South Africa.

Under the terms of the agreement, SunPower will acquire Tenesol from Total for $165.4m in cash.

Concurrently with the closing of the acquisition, Total has agreed to purchase 18.6 million shares of SunPower common stock in a private placement at $8.80 per share, a 50% premium to SunPower’s 22 December 2011 closing price.

The transaction has been approved by an independent committee of SunPower’s board of directors and is expected to close early in 2012 following the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Total and SunPower also reached new agreements that further strengthen SunPower’s balance sheet and liquidity position.

Total has agreed to pursue negotiations for several additional agreements with SunPower related to directly investing in SunPower’s research and development, developing the first initial, full-scale, commercial concentrator power plant with the SunPower C7 Tracker, and purchasing 10MW of SunPower products for the development of projects globally.

US-based SunPower is a manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems.