CS Credit Suisse Group

Bloom Energy Inc., a once-ballyhooed alternative energy startup that has raised $1.2 billion, is in confidential registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom Energy has filed to go public under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to register privately with the SEC.

A Bloom Energy representative declined to comment.

Bloom Energy has some of the biggest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley as backers and former Secretary of State Colin Powell on its board.

Legendary Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner John Doer, an early Google and Amazon.com backer and vocal promoter of Bloom Energy, was among the energy upstart's first investors in 2002. The stake from Kleiner Perkins was its first leap into clean energy, leading to a boom in alternative energy investments, many of which have fizzled.

The maker of fuel-cell power generators for businesses wooed investors with its promise to revolutionize the energy industry. Outlasting an alternative energy shakeout, Bloom Energy was valued at $2.9 billion in a 2011 investment. Scott Sandell, managing general partner at New Enterprise Associates and a board member at Boom Energy, had said in 2012 that Bloom Energy would attempt an IPO by 2014.

Bloom Energy's 2011 valuation is much higher than the market caps today of all the major publicly traded fuel-cell companies combined. GSV Capital sold its shares in Bloom Energy in the first quarter of 2016 at a loss, it said in financial filings.

Fuel-cell power generation has been an illusive target for decades, with a succession of companies unable to realize its business potential. Bloom Energy promised breakthroughs in materials and costs, but like many it faced challenges in high capital requirements.

Bloom Energy makes power generators that take in natural gas and convert it to electricity. Customers, including eBay, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and FedEx, have put Bloom Energy's generators at their offices in hopes of reduced energy costs.

Like those in the solar industry, Bloom Energy has been buoyed by federal tax credits and state subsidies. Yet those federal tax benefits, called Business Energy Investment Tax Credits, are scheduled to expire by year's end for fuel cells, small wind and hybrid solar lighting technologies. That would remove a 30% tax break to buyers of the Bloom fuel-cell energy systems, posing a financial risk ahead of its IPO.

Investors in Bloom Energy include New Enterprise Associates, Apex Venture Partners, TriplePoint Capital, Madrone Capital, Credit Suisse Group, DAG Ventures, E.ON Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs Ventures, Morgan Stanley and several pension funds, such as the Alberta Investment Management Corp. and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund as well as individuals.

.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 06, 2016 14:55 ET (18:55 GMT)

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024