UPDATE 2-Solarfun unit secures near $60 mln credit facility

* Unit gets $58.6 mln credit facility from Bank of Shanghai

* Says three-quarters will be in the form of a 3 yr loan

* Shares rise as much as 5 pct (Changes headline, adds analyst comments, updates share movement)

BANGALORE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Chinese photovoltaic cell maker Solarfun Power Holdings Co Ltd (SOLF.O) said its unit, Jiangsu Linyang Solarfun Co Ltd, secured a 400 million yuan ($58.57 million) credit facility from the Bank of Shanghai.

Three-quarters of the total amount, 300 million yuan, will be in the form of a three-year loan, the company said.

Simmons & Co analyst Burt Chao said the news was a positive, but not necessarily a "game changer."

"They do not have liquidity issues -- which is a good thing -- so this is not as transformational as it could have been. We have not turned decidedly positive on the company, and think it is more of a neutral at this point," the analyst said.

Chao, however, said the financing afforded Solarfun the ability to deliver on corporate goals.

This news comes even as the solar sector grapples with frozen credit markets that have dried up access to project financing and choked off demand.

Chao, who expects markets to thaw by the first or the second quarters of 2010, said a recovery in the solar markets will lag the general market a bit.

Lack of financing coupled with a pullback in incentives in Spain, has led to a global glut of solar panels, pushing down prices and eroding companies' profits.

In August, Solarfun warned that average selling prices could fall further still. [ID:nBNG508528]

A lot of companies are moving to find a plan to access project financing, which in itself has been frozen.

Shares of the company rose as much as 5 percent to a high of $5.04, before paring some gains to trade up 7 cents at $4.86 Thursday morning on Nasdaq.

The stock, which has more than doubled from a March year-low, is off more than 70 percent from a September 2008 year-high. ($1=6.829 YUAN) (Reporting by Adveith Nair in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)