French oil giant Total announced Wednesday that it is delaying the purchase of a 60 percent stake in U.S. solar manufacturer SunPower Corporation.

Total was originally scheduled to tender its almost $1.4 billion offer on May 31. The date has been pushed back to June 14 now, according to a release from Total.

“It took more time than expected to file with the European Commission,” said Fred Texier, spokesman for Total.

The oil giant has been consulting with the European Commission in an effort to make its acquisition of a controlling stake in SunPower go more smoothly.

“This way, we can be sure there are no missing documents,” Texier said.

When Total announced its bid to purchase shares of SunPower on April 28, it said it would pay $23.25 per share, almost 46 percent over what the shares were valued at then.

As of Tuesday, May 23, SunPower shareholders had only offered up a tiny fraction of the 60 percent Total is seeking. Just 1.1 percent of class A stock owners offered their shares for the tender offer and less than 1 percent of class B shareholders, according to the Total release.

“We really believe that’s typical of tender offers in the United States,” Texier said. “It’s normal for American shareholders to wait until the very last day to tender their shares.”

The Total offer will infuse SunPower with more than $1 billion of new capital.

Texier said that if Total does not get the full 60 percent offering by June 14, it will not back away.

“We remain committed to the success of this tender offer,” he said.

SunPower administration believes Total’s major investment in the company will improve it and its future prospects. SunPower, already the second-largest solar panel manufacturers in the United States, has seen a lot of growth and has been driving down the costs of its panels quarterly, according to previous releases from the company.

The deal with Total will launch the solar company into a new realm, executives have said.

The deal with Total “is significant in as much that it is a major capital investment,” SunPower CEO Tom Werner said at a shareholder’s meeting earlier this month. “Total is the 14th largest company in the world. We will benefit from their balance sheet, and we can now leverage their balance sheet to increase the capital in our company.”

Image courtesy of urban75.org.