Tesla Sets IPO Price and Date

Palo Alto-based Tesla Motors Inc. set terms for its highly anticipated IPO Tuesday, saying it now hopes to raise about $185 million by selling shares to the public and to Toyota Motors Corp.

The IPO date is in two weeks.
     
Today, Tesla and its stockholders announced it will sell 11.1 million shares for $14 to $16 each in an initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing. Toyota will invest another $50 million in the company.

The Toyota deal was announced last month
. Part of it included Tesla buying the recently shut-down NUMMI plant in Fremont.  Tesla says that Fremont location will be used to make its Model S luxury electric sedan.

Tesla on Tuesday raised its expected proceeds from the $100 million it listed in its initial stock-registration filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 29.

The electronic car company currently makes just one vehicle, the high-end Roadster sports car. It is working on a mass-market sedan with Toyota that is expected to start selling in 2012 for less than $50,000. That price would include a federal tax credit of $7,500.

Until the sedan -- the Model S that will be built in Fremont-- hits the market, Tesla expects continuing quarterly losses. It has lost $290.2 million since the company was founded in 2003. Its net loss deepened in the first quarter to $29.5 million from $16 million in the same period last year.

Tesla's total revenue since 2003 has been just $147.6 million, generated by sales of 1,063 Roadsters as of March 31. But the company said it can use a long-term $465 million loan from the Department of Energy to finance manufacturing of the Model S.
     
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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