Viper Pulls IPO Application
Viper Motorcycle Company, New Hope, Minn., has pulled its application for an initial public stock (IPO) offering and today faces an uncertain future. Viper filed a request with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Feb. 1, 2005, that it be permitted to withdraw its IPO due to “market conditions.” The IPO was never offered to the public.
In its IPO, Viper said it planned to raise $9 million by selling 1.8 million shares at $5 per share. Not all the proceeds would have been retained by the company, however. It said that it planned to use $2,271,000 of the proceeds to repay debts owed to shareholders and a former officer of the company.
Noting in its IPO filing that it may need additional financing, the company said it expected the proceeds of the offering to provide it with working capital for 12 months.
According to a Dec. 7, 2004, filing, the company said it had “not begun commercial scale production.” Viper has about 25 dealers.
Viper began shipping “limited quantities” of the Diablo model last June, but is still “ramping up” production, Terry Nesbitt, Viper’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, told Powersports Business. He said 50 units have been shipped while orders for approximately 200 more bikes are yet to be fulfilled. The bikes basically were hand-built on the company’s production line, he said.
Viper reported total losses of $6.9 million for the period Nov. 18, 2002, through Sept. 30, 2004. The company’s debt recently has been exchanged for equity, Nesbitt said, leaving the company debt-free.
Nesbitt said the company is working on a re-financing that is expected to be completed soon. The move, he said, will enable Viper to begin production of the Diablo for the upcoming motorcycle sales season.