L' Affaire Fisker

[Meltonian]

Fisker Looking to Raise Another $75M-$150M Privately

November 2nd, 2010

Plug-in hybrid startup Fisker Automotive, we’re told, is looking to raise another $75 million to $150 million in private equity investments. It would seem that Fisker is in a better position than the company was the last time it went looking for investors earlier this year.

Fisker has since closed on a $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, bought GM’s old Boxwood Road plant near Newport for $20 million, and was awarded $21.5 million grants and loans from the state of Delaware. Also, speaking at the Paris Motor Show last month, where the company unveiled the first factory-built version of its $88,000 Karma sports sedan, CEO Henrik Fisker said the company had taken more than 3,000 pre-orders for the Karma.

Fisker is already a well-funded operation, having raised more than $300 million privately. Early deliveries of the Karma are expected in March, after Fisker ramps up to full production of the Karma at a contractor’s plant in Finland.

In late 2012, Fisker plans to begin building its second project in Delaware: the Project Nina. Production is slated to begin then on a sedan costing around $47,000. Later, Fisker hopes to produce a Nina SUV, and a two-door version, according to documents the company has submitted to the Department of Energy. Fisker’s Karma, if all goes as planned, will also be built as three separate vehicles: the sports sedan, a convertible, and a sports wagon. Fisker has promised to eventually employ 2,500 people in Delaware, either directly or through suppliers.

Eventually, a public offering of Fisker’s stock is expected to pay back all of those private investors — past and future. Fisker himself suggested as much in an interview with news agency Reuters while in Paris last month.

“We have to launch the Karma first, that is clear,” Fisker told Reuters. ”You have to get the revenue and launch the Karma, but we already are making sure our company is prepared for this possibility of an IPO.”

Back in June, after rival Tesla’s successful IPO, Fisker’s board chairman Ray Lane told us that a public offering for Fisker was only a matter of time.

“Certainly we would plan to sell shares in the public market once the Karma is on the road and we have visibility into the revenue plan,” said Lane, a managing partner at venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

*http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawareinc/2010/11/02/fisker-looking-to-raise-another-75m-150m-privately/*