Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
When Massachusetts-based A123 Systems goes public, it will be such a hot IPO that it will lift the valuations of other lithium-ion battery developers, two experts believe.
No date for an IPO has been announced, but it is rumored that A123 could go public as early as September, especially if gets the contract to supply the lithium-ion batteries for General Motors’ new plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt. “If you’re looking at investment opportunities” in the burgeoning lithium-ion battery sector, says Mike Millikin of the authoritative web site Green Car Congress, “I’d say there’s one – A123.”
Both Millikin and green investment analyst Neal Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners LLC in San Francisco think that A123’s IPO could be so richly valued that it will raise the valuations of other li-ion developers that are already public. “If the (A123) IPO goes well, it should cause a rising tide,” Dikeman told EnergyTechStocks.com.
Dikeman didn’t name names, but Millkin said he would expect three companies in particular – Ener1, Valence Technology and, to a lesser extent, Altair Nanotechnologies – to see their stock market valuations rise in the wake of an A123 IPO.
As EnergyTechStocks.com has reported, Ener1 is a small public company based in Florida that has an 80.5%-owned subsidiary called EnerDel that is developing lithium-ion batteries. Ener1 has a potentially-lucrative deal with Norwegian electric vehicle manufacturer Think.
Valence Technology has a deal to supply lithium-ion batteries for Smith Electric’s electric delivery vans. Smith Electric is a unit of Britain’s Tanfield Group PLC. It’s planning to open a U.S. manufacturing facility and believes the near-term market for electric delivery vans in Europe and the U.S. is in the hundreds of thousands.
Millikin thought the impact on Altair would be less because its commercial relationships aren’t as well established.
It should be noted that while Millikin and Dikeman see other lithium-ion car battery developers benefiting from an A123 IPO, Millikin senses that A123 may occupy a unique position in this growing industry. “They’re going to move up the food chain,” he said,