Lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems on June 23 amended its SEC registration for a proposed IPO.
The company has raised $100 million in new funding and announced a supply deal with Chrysler since first filing for a $175 million IPO in August 2008.
The company also announced plans to invest $600 million in a cell manufacturing and pack assembly facility in Michigan. That facility will be the first of several planned manufacturing facilities, for which the company applied for $1.84 billion in federal funds. The company has since adjusted its application amounts to $1 billion in Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loans and $438 million in direct grants.
John Petersen of Alt Energy Stocks believes that the IPO is likely to take place in early September. And the company will probably look to raise more than $175 million, because the ATVM loans require 20% cost sharing and the direct federal grants require 50% cost sharing.
The IPO will be underwritten by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) and Lazard (NYSE: LAZ), which Petersen said will give a first impression of how top-tier investment banks value pure-play energy storage.
He also said the IPO is likely to draw attention to energy storage, which has been "undervalued and ignored for years."
Nonetheless, he said it will be at least a decade before lithium-ion overcomes high costs, meaning that the use of cheaper lead-acid batteries will continue to expand in the near-term.
Read the full analysis at the link below.
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