SunPower discloses $25 mln in auction-rate debt

LOS ANGELES, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Solar cell maker SunPower Corp SPWR.O said on Friday that it had $25.1 million invested in auction-rate securities at the end of June, investments it plans to hold until they can be sold.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it would not be able to access those funds until a future auction is successful, the issuer redeems the securities, a buyer is found outside of the auction process, or the securities mature.

The filing did not disclose the issuer.

The amount is relatively modest for SunPower, which expects revenue of $1.39 billion to $1.44 billion this year. The company is majority-owned by Cypress Semiconductor (CY.N)

Auction-rate debt bears interest rates that reset through periodic auctions typically held every seven, 28 or 35 days. Once thought safe, much of that market has been frozen since Wall Street brokerages stopped supporting the debt.

On Friday, Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) said it would buy back billions of dollars in auction-rate securities, a day after Citigroup (C.N) and Merrill Lynch MER.N said they would do the same.

The moves came as chip maker STMicroelectronics NV (STM.PA) sued Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) on Thursday for allegedly placing $450 million of its cash into auction-rate securities without authorization.

SunPower officials were not immediately available to say whether the San Jose, California, company was considering legal action related to the securities.

In the filing, SunPower said it had classified the securities as long-term investments on its balance sheet because they are not expected to be used to fund current operations.

SunPower shares were down $1.47, or 1.9 percent, at $74.79 in afternoon Nasdaq trade. (Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)