FuelCell’s Capital Raise, Dilutive But Opportunistic (FCEL)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Money Stack ImageFuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) is getting hammered this morning.  The developer and manufacturer of fuel cell power plants for electric power generation announced a $24.2 million financing pact this morning.  The company sold 6.7 million shares of common stock at $3.59 per share via Canaccord Adams Inc. and Lazard Capital Markets.

Net proceeds will be earmarked for product development, project financing, expansion of manufacturing capacity, and general corporate purposes.

This $3.59 price is being deemed as a severe discount to yesterdays $4.39 close.  Just keep in mind that this stock was actually under $3.00 on May 15, 2009 and was briefly trading under $2.00 at the peak of selling in early March.

As of last quarter-end, FuelCell had cash and marketable securities at almost $42.4 million and other long-term investments were listed as $10.49 million. Its long-term debt was only $4.48 million and total liabilities were $63.5 million.

It is always easy to second guess a company and say how they are giving shares away to raise cash.  That is unfortunately what has to happen in the green energy sector right now after you have seen a 100% gain from lows.  This company needs to have its cash bolstered because it is expected to lose money this year and next year despite the notions that sales are expected at $105.4 million this year and $165.1 million next year.  Revenue was $100.7 million last year.

Shares are down 15% at $3.70 in early trading and the 52-week range is $1.98 to $8.83.  After today’s drop and before the effects of the offering we have the market cap listed as $259 million.

Jon C. Ogg
June 16, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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