A123Systems up and climbing after Nasdaq debut

The cleantech sector is watching the new ticker symbol "AONE” for Watertown, Mass.-based A123Systems (Nasdaq:AONE) with eager eyes today.

The company—which makes advanced lithium ion batteries and battery systems for the transportation, electric grid and portable power markets—started trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market this morning, above its previously boosted price range per share and is still climbing.

The offer price was set at $13.50 per share, with about 28.2 million shares offered. The trading price is expected to allow the company to net about $400 million, well above what it had been looking to raise.

In early morning trading today, the stock price was as high as $17.60, and had reached $21.14 by the afternoon. 

More than 680,500 shares are being sold by selling shareholders. The company has also granted underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 4.2 million shares at the IPO price to cover over allotments, if any.

Earlier this week, underwriters increased the estimated price range to between $10 and $11.50 per share. The company had been planning to offer 25.7 million shares to raise nearly $300 million.

Earlier this month, the company filed a price range of between $8.50 and $9.50 per share (see A123 looking to get lucky filing IPO price range?)

As the stock markets began to take a nose dive last year, A123 initially filed its IPO plans to raise up to $175 million (see A123 Systems going public).

A123 has said the proceeds are expected to be used for capital spending and acquisitions.

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