Posted on 10/06/2012 1:00:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Solar panel installer SolarCity Corp filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $201 million in an initial public offering that could help rekindle investor appetite for cleantech stocks.
....Companies including Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have provided funds to finance SolarCity's projects. Those investors are able to collect a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar energy systems......
...SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive along with their cousin, PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk....
SolarCity hopes it can buck the lackluster trend among recent cleantech IPOs....
....[SolorCity's] total revenue was $46.6 million in the three months ended June 30, compared with $13 million a year earlier. It said it had an accumulated deficit of $70.3 million as of June 30.
....SolarCity said it might use a part of the proceeds from the offering to expand its current business through acquisitions or investments in other complementary strategic businesses, products or technologies.
It said, however, that reductions in or eliminations of government incentives for solar power could hurt its results and its ability to compete.
In addition, SolarCity said it was notified this month that the Internal Revenue Service is conducting audits of two of its investment funds, including a review of the solar installations that applied for a popular government cash grant program.
"If ... the [IRS] determines that the valuations were incorrect and that our investment funds received U.S. Treasury grants in excess of the amounts to which they were entitled, we could be subject to tax liabilities, including interest and penalties, and we could be required to make indemnity payments to the fund investors," the company said in the SEC filing.....
Other cleantech companies....cancelled IPO plans at the last minute earlier this year....
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Elon Musk's companies include Tesla Elec Cars, SpaceX and SolarCity - all getting government money and/or contracts.
....SolarCity said it might use a part of the proceeds from the offering to expand its current business through acquisitions or investments in other complementary strategic businesses, products or technologies.
September 25, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle: Tesla....[amends loan agreement with U.S.Energy Dept]
More:
May 29, 2012 (Ricochet) Elon Musk Shows Us How to Thrive in the Government-Directed Economy ...."Those who know how to navigate an economy driven by the state will succeed. They do so regardless whether the market has determined their product as the best or not—sometimes it has, sometimes it hasn’t. Sometimes the consumer has no real ability, thanks to the aforementioned mix of laws and regulations, to go in another direction. Sometimes the only consumer is the government, meaning the appropriators, bureaucrats, and administrators who dream fondly of working some day for the contractor titans they fuel with other people’s money.".....
Sept 18, 2012 - Elon Musk SpaceX Head Obama Bundler?
April 15, 2012 (National Legal and Policy Center) Taxpayers Subsidize Forbes 'Green' Billionaires' Schemes........Musk, best known as co-founder of the company that became PayPal, is Chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, SolarCity spent $535,000 in 2009 and 2010 to lobby Congress and the Department of Energy on climate legislation, the Recovery Act, “green workforce training and development,” and provisions in various legislation “relevant to solar development.” SolarCity has sought to extend a program, due to expire at the end of 2012, that delivers to manufacturers an upfront cash grant in lieu of a 30 percent Investment Tax Credit (called the Section 1603 grant program). So far, according to DOE reports, SolarCity has received more than $66 million from that program.
The company also won a partial guarantee from DOE of a $344 million loan that will place up to 160,000 rooftop solar installations on military housing across the country..........."
Tesla brings political pull, as well. A former Tesla board member, Steve Westly, is an Obama bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president in 2008 and for his 2012 re-election campaign. His Westly Group was also a financial supporter of Tesla Motors until Tesla went public in 2010, and Westly continues to back the company.
Tesla’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is a hearty political contributor who has primarily backed Democrats, including Obama. According to published reports, another Tesla investor is Nick Pritzker, a donor to Obama and a cousin of Penny Pritzker, the national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 campaign........"
[Penny Prktzker reportedly is helping to buy Obama's Hawaiian retirement estate.]
Forbes: “.........The largest investor in the company is noneother than Elon Musk, the CEO of both publicly held electric car maker Tesla Motors and still privately held rocket company SpaceX. He holds a 31.9% stake. Other large holders include venture firm Draper Fisher with 26.3%, Generation IM Climate Solutions Fund, with 7.5%, and Bay Area Equity Fund, with 7.4%. The filing notes that some insiders plan to sell shares in the IPO, but the filing does not specify the number of shares to be sold overall.”
Is this the article that was alluded to on Drudge?
Could you give me more information?
Yesterday, Drudge and FR had articles relating to a big scandal that may be threatening Obama and distracting his campaign. They were expecting a story to be released on Friday or Monday.
Illegal donations, I think.
OK - I saw that. I believe that Drudge “tease” involves campaign donations from unsecured sources — pre-paid debit cards believed to be used to hide identities and donations (totaling more than the limit allowed by law). Apparently this isn’t the first time Dems have been investigated for this.
According to a study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, “the production phase of electric vehicles proved substantially more environmentally intensive” than the production process for traditional gas-powered cars.
Specifically, the study found that electric car factories can emit more toxic waste than gas-burning car factories. And greenhouse gas emissions rise exponentially if coal is used to produce the electricity necessary to charge “green” vehicles, according to the study.
The researchers compared the overall life-cycle impact of petrol or diesel-powered cars and electric vehicles and concluded that the latter can significantly damage the climate.
“The global warming potential from electric vehicle production is about twice that of conventional vehicles,” the report said. “It is counterproductive to promote electric vehicles in regions where electricity is primarily produced from lignite, coal or even heavy oil combustion.” Batteries and electric motors are composed of minerals like nickel, copper and aluminum, which are toxic.
The authors of the study acknowledged, however, that “a more significant reduction in global warming could potentially be achieved by increasing fuel efficiency or shifting from petrol to diesel.”
It may be a bit premature to place the “FailedGreen” (companies&technologies) Keyword on this article, but somehow I think it is only a matter of a short while before it proves accurate.
The insiders just want to get paid off before going belly up. Wouldn’t touch this ipo with a ten foot pole.
“SolarCity has expanded rapidly thanks to a business model that allows residential customers to lease solar panels for their roofs. Rather than paying the large upfront costs required for a solar installation, customers pay a monthly fee.
Companies including Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have provided funds to finance SolarCity’s projects. Those investors are able to collect a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar energy systems.”
Wow! Yet another “green” energy swindle! “Customers” putatively “lease” a solar system, paying little up front, and those who finance the “leases” collect the FULL 30% federal tax credit up front! The “customers” don’t get the tax credit, but the lenders get it! And, AND, they get ALL of the federal tax credit up front!
So my question is what happens when the “customers” quit making their lease payments because the “customers” go bankrupt, the solar systems quit working, etc.? I tell you what happens: the lender “funds” go bankrupt and ABSOLUTELY NONE of the federal tax credit gets paid back to the Feds! Sweet, sweet, scam, don’t you think? Thank you Obama for yet another of your wonderful “investments” of taxpayer money!
I knew there must more reasons not to use PayPal other than a stupid way to pay bills!
Thanks.
“Our future success depends on our ability to raise capital from third-party fund investors to help finance the deployment of our residential and commercial solar energy systems,” SolarCity stated in its IPO filing. “In the past, we encountered challenges raising new funds, which caused us to delay deployment of a substantial number of solar energy systems for which we had signed leases or power purchase agreements with customers.”
Customers include Stanford University, the U.S. Armed Forces, the Department of Homeland Security, eBay, Intel, and Walmart.
Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is the chairman of SolarCity (as well as Tesla Motors - [and SpaceX]), which his [cousins] Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. Musk owns around 30 percent of the company......" Source
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