Tesla Motors is already off to a good start before its debut on the Nasdaq as TSLA tomorrow. The electric car company's shares have been priced at $17 a pop, exceeding the expected range of $14 to $16.
With 13.3 million shares, or about 14 percent of the company, selling on the public market, the total take will be around $226 million. This is higher than the $178 million the company anticipated last week, and much much higher than the $100 million it originally filed for. The pricing sets its valuation at about $1.6 billion, beating even the company's goal of $1.4 billion.
Existing shareholders will be selling 1.42 million shares, with the remaining 11.9 million being sold by the company itself.
It looks like the analysts who predicted Tesla to be a hot stock were right. Some dissenting voices thought that the IPO might be a bust considering recent public market trends in cleantech, and lingering doubts about the company's long-term success. But they obviously underestimated the ability for sexy sports cars to stir investors' hearts.
Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tesla not only represents a breakthrough in automotive technology, it's also making history as the first car company to go public in the U.S. since the Ford Motor Company in 1956. With this $17 victory, it has yet again earned its halo as the plug-in car player to watch.
Earlier today, we reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be selling close to a million of his own shares in the company, retaining 28.4 percent and a controlling interest in the company. He stands to personally rake in close to $16 million.
After tomorrow's sale, Toyota will be buying $50 million worth of shares, as per the two companies' agreement that also involved the electric car maker's acquisition of the NUMMI automotive plant in Fremont, Calif.
Tesla previously raised $783 million, including both its $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, and venture capital from a bevy of sources, including VantagePoint Venture Partners, Valor Equity Partners, Compass Technology Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Google, JP Morgan, Technology Venture Partners, and individuals like Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founding eBay president Jeff Skoll, and of course Musk himself. The IPO will tip the total amount raised into the billions.
So it looks like it will be a good first day out of the gate for Tesla. Whether the stock price will remain at this height for long is another matter, which we've explored extensively in other posts.