A123 IPO & Lux Research
The big news this week: the long-awaited nanotech and cleantech battery company, A123 a spin-out from MIT had a smashing IPO approaching $2 billion in market cap.
Here’s Lux Research’s take as covered by Nature:
University spin-out opens trading as a billion-dollar company.
Here’s Lux Research’s take as covered by Nature:
University spin-out opens trading as a billion-dollar company.
By Katharine Sanderson
More shares in battery manufacturer A123 were sold than initially expected.
One university spin-out company has suddenly turned investors batty for batteries. A123 Systems, a rechargeable-battery manufacturer founded in 2001 by materials scientist Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, got a flying start to its life as a publicly traded company.
A123, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, first announced its intention to offer public shares in August 2008, with predictions that they would sell for between US$8 and $9.50. But yesterday, they flew off the shelves at $13.50 a share, with around 28 million shares being sold — 3 million more than expected. This bagged the company a cool $380 million ahead of its first day's trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange today. "It's very exciting news," says John Petersen, a lawyer specializing in energy-storage companies at law firm Fefer, Petersen and Cie in Barbereche, Switzerland. "I think the next 20 years are going to be times of immense prosperity for the battery industry," he says.
The cash boost comes shortly after A123 received a $249-million grant in August this year from the US Department of Energy to develop batteries for electric vehicles. The company has also raised more than $350 million in private investments. Add to this the money from the shares, a $69-million investment from General Electric and $100 million in refundable tax credits from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and A123 Systems becomes a billion-dollar company. The firm also applied for a $1.8-billion loan from the US government in January this year, with the intention of building a mass-production facility in Michigan.
"It's a very solid company poised to continue to grow," says analyst Michael Holman from Lux Research in New York. But, cautions Holman, "There are a lot of risks, particularly in the electric-vehicle market for A123."
More shares in battery manufacturer A123 were sold than initially expected.
One university spin-out company has suddenly turned investors batty for batteries. A123 Systems, a rechargeable-battery manufacturer founded in 2001 by materials scientist Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, got a flying start to its life as a publicly traded company.
A123, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, first announced its intention to offer public shares in August 2008, with predictions that they would sell for between US$8 and $9.50. But yesterday, they flew off the shelves at $13.50 a share, with around 28 million shares being sold — 3 million more than expected. This bagged the company a cool $380 million ahead of its first day's trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange today. "It's very exciting news," says John Petersen, a lawyer specializing in energy-storage companies at law firm Fefer, Petersen and Cie in Barbereche, Switzerland. "I think the next 20 years are going to be times of immense prosperity for the battery industry," he says.
The cash boost comes shortly after A123 received a $249-million grant in August this year from the US Department of Energy to develop batteries for electric vehicles. The company has also raised more than $350 million in private investments. Add to this the money from the shares, a $69-million investment from General Electric and $100 million in refundable tax credits from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and A123 Systems becomes a billion-dollar company. The firm also applied for a $1.8-billion loan from the US government in January this year, with the intention of building a mass-production facility in Michigan.
"It's a very solid company poised to continue to grow," says analyst Michael Holman from Lux Research in New York. But, cautions Holman, "There are a lot of risks, particularly in the electric-vehicle market for A123."
A full copy of the article can be found on the Nature website.
Labels: a123, alternative energy, alternative power, general electric, Lux Research, michael holman, MIT, power, Weekly Insider, yet-ming chiang
posted by Josh Wolfe at
4:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home