Fisker Automotive Seeks To Raise More Cash

A new report from Reuters states that Fisker Automotive is looking to raise about $150 million in additional funds to stay afloat until it can launch production of its second model, a key investor said on Wednesday. The company has already raised more than $1 billion in private financing from venture backers and others since its founding in 2007. But earlier this year, Fisker was denied access to more than half of a $529-million government loan that was the cornerstone of its business plan.

"We need money on our balance sheet" to fund operating expenses, said Ray Lane, a Fisker director and a managing partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "And we need money to fund the development of the next car."

Although it has raised more than $400 million in venture funds in the past 12 months, Fisker needs at least another $150 million to reach breakeven and may go back to investors again in 2013 for more money, Lane said in an interview.

"We're raising some of that money now, and some later," he said, declining to say how much the company would need in total.

Once Fisker breaks even, the company could pursue an initial public offering or a sale to a strategic investor, which could come in late 2013, Lane said.

Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher declined to comment on the company's financial plans.

Read the full report here: http://www.autonews.com/article/2012...#ixzz23iIfISFC

 

This is my shocked face.



Oh wait. I'm not.

 

They should design exterior and leave engineering to a real auto maker

 

Strategic Investor Prerequisite: Must enjoy burning money, literally.

I can't believe my tax dollar went into this (imho) horse shit. And the car doesn't even need to be in use to clean investors out =D

 

Wire: BLOOMBERG News (BN) Date: Aug 15 2012 14:02:17
Post-Loan Fisker’s 16 Plant Employees Criticized by Senators (2)


(Updates with comments from Fisker letter, founder
starting in ninth paragraph.)

By Angela Greiling Keane
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The fact that luxury plug-in
carmaker Fisker Automotive Inc. has only 16 employees at what
was to be a U.S. manufacturing plant in Delaware drew criticism
today from two Republican U.S. senators.
Fisker, in a letter released today by Senators Charles
Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota, said it had
projected 2,500 direct and indirect jobs from manufacturing in
Delaware after receiving approval for $529 million in loans from
the U.S. Energy Department.
The senators’ criticism follows yesterday’s announcement of
a new chief executive officer and a company statement on Aug. 13
that it’s seeking the cause of a fire involving a $103,000 Karma
sedan, in the second such incident this year. The company has
delivered more than 1,000 Karmas, which are assembled in
Finland, in the U.S. and Europe since December.
Grassley, his party’s ranking member on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, and Thune sent a letter July 23 to Tom
LaSorda, who stepped down yesterday as Fisker’s CEO, asking him
about the loan, U.S. job-creation promises and production plans
at a shuttered General Motors Co. plant in Wilmington, Delaware,
where Fisker said it planned to build a second model, called the
Atlantic.
Fisker halted preparation work at the plant earlier this
year and fired 26 employees after the U.S. loan was frozen for
not meeting production milestones on the Karma. The company has
said it may build the Atlantic outside the U.S.

Company Response

The company’s Aug. 14 response to the lawmakers, released
by the senators today, was signed by an attorney representing
Fisker, based in Anaheim, California.
“The U.S. government has been forced to halt the loan and
might never collect the millions of dollars already
distributed,” Grassley said in an e-mailed statement. “So far,
the Energy Department refuses to take responsibility for the
loan and the job creation that has not materialized. We’ll
continue to ask questions to find out how a loan like this could
have been made and what the return has been for the American
taxpayer.”
Grassley and Thune sent a letter in June to U.S. Energy
Secretary Steven Chu asking him for more information about the
agency’s 2009 loans to Fisker. The company, a startup, drew
about $193 million from the loan before its access to the funds
was suspended last year.

Job Creation

Fisker pointed to the Energy Department as the source of
calculations that the company would create one permanent job for
every $264,500 lent and lead to the equivalent of 30,000 fewer
cars on U.S. roads. The Energy Department estimated 2,000 jobs
would be created or saved from its Fisker loan, projecting fewer
jobs than the company did.
The Energy Department sent an Aug. 3 letter to Grassley
defending the loan to Fisker and the loan program overall.
Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, declined to
comment today on the Fisker letter.
Fisker has delayed production of the Atlantic. Henrik
Fisker, the carmaker’s co-founder and executive vice chairman,
told reporters on a conference call yesterday that he had no
updates on the situation in Wilmington.

 

Troubled green carmaker Fisker seeks to raise more cash | Reuters

(Reuters) - Fisker Automotive, the maker of the $100,000-plus Karma hybrid sports car, aims to raise about $150 million in additional funds to tide the company over until it can launch production of its second model, a key investor said on Wednesday.

The company has already raised more than $1 billion in private financing from venture backers and others since its founding in 2007. But earlier this year, Fisker was denied access to more than half of a $529-million government loan that was the cornerstone of its business plan.

"We need money on our balance sheet" to fund operating expenses, said Ray Lane, a Fisker director and a managing partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "And we need money to fund the development of the next car."

Although it has raised more than $400 million in venture funds in the past 12 months, Fisker needs at least another $150 million to reach breakeven and may go back to investors again in 2013 for more money, Lane said in an interview.

"We're raising some of that money now, and some later," he said, declining to say how much the company would need in total.

Once Fisker breaks even, the company could pursue an initial public offering or a sale to a strategic investor, which could come in late 2013, Lane said.

Fisker originally had planned to replace its government-backed loan with high-yield debt plus equity, but shelved that plan in favor of simply raising more equity, Lane said.

Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher declined to comment on the company's financial plans.

GREEN-TECH WOES

In 2009, Fisker was among the few automakers to receive a U.S. Department of Energy loan as part of a broader government push to add U.S. jobs and promote green technology. Under a different government effort, Fisker's battery supplier A123 Systems received a $249-million green-technology grant.

But both companies have struggled in recent months. Fisker has faced a series of quality and financial setbacks involving its flagship vehicle, the Karma plug-in hybrid, and delays in the development of its second hybrid model, the Atlantic sedan.

The automaker, based in Anaheim, California, had planned to build the Atlantic at a former General Motors Co (GM.N) plant in Delaware, the home state of Vice President Joseph Biden. It had counted on using money from the DOE loan to retool the plant and get it ready for production in 2013.

In the meantime, Fisker has experienced a small number of high-profile car fires, the most recent one last week in Woodside, California. Earlier this week, Fisker named its third chief executive this year.

A123, which had run short of cash, said last week that it planned to sell a controlling stake to Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang for $450 million.

Fisker has raised $1.01 billion from more than 100 venture investors over the past five years, according to company documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

After a rocky start and several delays, Fisker has delivered 2,000 Karmas, Lane said. He drives one, as do actor Leonardo DiCaprio and singer Justin Bieber.

(Editing by Mary Milliken, Bernard Orr and Ken Wills)

 

Here is the more appropriate heading

Fisker automotive is going bust after burning cash on a second model

Apparently, they are managed by Proton too

 

At least none of our (Federal) money will be used any more. RIP Fisker.

 

2000? So $50mm a copy. Brilliant.

 

Sort of like killing off an endangered species and saying "Well, at least none of them will be hurt any more."

LMFAO!!!!