US electric sports car maker Tesla Motors filed for an initial public offering of up to US$100 million, aiming to cash in on growing investor interest in battery-powered vehicles and green technology.
The initial public offering (IPO) filing on Friday from the six-year-old startup, best known for its US$109,000 all-electric Roadster, marks the first public offering from a US automaker since Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Co made its share debut in 1956.
It also represents a landmark in the resurgence of electric car technology that most carmakers until recently had dismissed as impractical.
Tesla’s IPO, with underwriters including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities, should generate enthusiasm for IPOs generally, analysts said.
“People are going to be watching this one move through the pipeline,” said Matt Therian, analyst with Connecticut-based IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.
“It’s probably a good sign for the IPO market,” he said.
Ben Holmes, founder of Morningnotes.com, said an IPO is sometimes the best form of advertising, especially if the deal is successful, for companies like Tesla.
“Venture-backed deals were kind of derailed and this might be what we call a bell cow — a deal that’s so steady and so well-done and so impressive it brings other deals to market that were waiting,” he said.
In the nine months ended Sept. 30, Tesla lost US$31.5 million, down from a loss of US$57.3 million in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue jumped to US$93.4 million from US$580,000.
The company said it would continue to post losses until it begins making “significant” deliveries of the Model S, which is not expected to launch until 2012.
Tesla, in the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, did not provide details on IPO pricing or its timing.
The company, named after scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, said in the filing it had sold 937 Roadsters in 18 countries since it was founded.
It will compete with established carmakers such as Ford, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co Ltd, all of which are racing to launch electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Tesla is a small player with a high-end market and limited production, but hopes the Model S electric sedan will broaden its potential market.
It has received about 2,000 reservations for the car, which is being designed as a four-door, five-passenger premium sedan with an additional third row with two rear-facing child seats. It has a base price of US$49,900.
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