Report: Tesla IPO to happen week of June 28

It looks like Tesla Motors will finally be going public the week of June 28, if a report in the Wall Street Journal is correct. The long anticipated stock offering was originally planned for the fall of 2008, but the global financial melt-down made that impossible. Tesla is hoping to sell 11.1 million shares at a price of $14 to $16 a share for a total take of up to $178 million.

The share offering must happen sometime this year under the terms of the recent agreement between Tesla and Toyota if the Japanese automaker is to proceed with its plan to invest $50 million in the California-based electric car maker. At $15 per share, Toyota would get about 3.3 percent of the company or about one-third of what Daimler got last year for a similar investment.

Aside from a single month in July 2009, Tesla has never turned a profit in its seven-year existence and is unlikely to do so until after the Model S goes on sale, now expected to happen in 2012. As of March 31, 2010, Tesla sold 1,063 Roadsters and there is no longer a waiting list for the electric sports car. Tesla officials have declined comment on the IPO report.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]