SolarCity seeks to raise as much as $151 million in IPO
Bay Area solar energy company SolarCity Corp. is looking to raise as much as $151 million in its highly anticipated initial public stock offering.
The San Mateo business — which helps residential, commercial and government clients such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., EBay and the U.S. military set up solar power-generating systems — said it expects its shares to sell for $13 to $15 each.
The company plans to sell 10 million shares, while shareholders will offer 65,012 shares, SolarCity said in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it plans to launch under the SCTY ticker on the Nasdaq exchange.
SolarCity describes itself as selling renewable energy to its customers at prices below utility rates, or roughly 15 cents a kilowatt hour on average. After clients sign multi-decade contracts, SolarCity handles the entire process from permitting through installation at limited upfront charge, the company said.
Brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive founded the company in 2006. Their cousin, Tesla Motors Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. boss Elon Musk, serves as chairman.
SolarCity now operates in 14 states and plans to expand internationally. It has raised $1.57 billion from backers such as Google Inc., PG&E; Corp. and U.S. Bancorp.
The company hopes to take advantage of rising energy prices, a trend that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts will cause the U.S. energy-efficiency-services sector to boom more than four-fold from 2008 to 2020.
