Tesla’s Musk says will not have to raise funds in fourth quarter
Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk on Sunday said the company would not need to raise equity or corporate debt in the fourth quarter for its planned acquisition of SolarCity Corp, contradicting a filing the company made with regulators last week.
Asked on Twitter whether the company would raise funds in first quarter of 2017, Musk tweeted, “Probably not then either.”
A spokeswoman said the company would not comment beyond Musk’s tweets.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Tesla said it “is currently planning to raise additional funds by the end of this year, including through potential equity or debt offerings, subject to market conditions and recognizing that Tesla cannot be certain that additional funds would be available to it on favorable terms or at all.”
Financial statements in the filing show Tesla and SolarCity had a combined $3.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30. However, the company also stated that after June 30, it expects to pay $426 million to holders of certain convertible debt securities in the third quarter.
Tesla also has disclosed that its June 30 cash balance reflected $678 million drawn from a credit line that was repaid in July.
The filing, made in connection with Tesla’s pending combination with solar energy company SolarCity Corp, said additional funds would be used for tooling, production equipment and construction of assembly lines for the Tesla Model 3.
The Model 3 is the high volume sedan Musk has said Tesla plans to launch next summer, targeting sales of as many as 500,000 vehicles a year.
Tesla has said it is on track to deliver 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles this year.
In another Twitter message Sunday, Musk wrote “Tesla product unveiling on the 17th (unexpected by most), followed by Tesla/SolarCity on the 28th.”
In an earlier tweet, Musk had said he planned to unveil a new SolarCity solar energy system, describing it as a solar roof with an integrated energy storage battery produced by Tesla.
Source: Reuters
