Trina Solar said it planned to spin off its power plants business and take it public, joining a growing list of solar panel makers seeking a source of low-cost funding.
Investors pushed up the company's shares as such spin-offs normally lead to fat dividends.
Trina's US rivals, SunPower and First Solar, said last week that they were in talks to set up a venture that would hold some of their power-generating assets.
A spin-off helps a parent company access cheap funding through an initial public offering and subsequent offerings.
Trina also said that it expected to set up low-cost plants outside China to ramp up production capacity this year, as it looks to counter US and EU tariffs on products made in China.
The company said it expected to spend US$250 million to US$300 million on its manufacturing business and about US$1.1 billion on the downstream, or power plants, business this year, chief financial officer Teresa Tan said on a post-earnings call.
Trina was yet to decide on when and where it would list the downstream business, Tan said.