Tesla Motors to sell additional $500 million worth of stock
A Tesla car parked outside the company’s Fremont, Calif., plant.
Tesla Motors Inc. said Thursday it plans to sell an additional $500 million worth of stock to help fund its current projects, including new-car development and a battery plant being built in Nevada.
The Palo Alto-based maker of electric cars also said its billionaire chief executive, Elon Musk, plans to buy $20 million worth of the shares being offered.
Tesla’s existing stock jumped nearly 3% after the announcement, gaining $6.98 to $245.15 a share in morning trading on Wall Street.
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Tesla has several projects in the works, and last week the company reported that its second-quarter loss was nearly triple that from the same period a year earlier as it plowed funds into the ventures.
They include investing in the launch of a sport utility vehicle, the Model X; building a battery plant near Reno and developing the Model 3, a small electric car scheduled to go into production in 2017.
Tesla’s total stock market value is about $30.3 billion, and Musk owns about 22.4% of the shares in a stake worth $6.7 billion, according to FactSet Research.
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