Clean Energy Fuels IPO a bit tamer than hoped

Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) accomplished a mildly solid showing with their IPO on Friday, although the project was scaled back from previous expectations. Well-known oil man T. Boone Pickens, principle shareholder of the company, had upped his expectations in March 2007 from $287.5 million initially to $354 million, as reported by Orange County Business Journal. The expected IPO share price had been in the $13 to $17 range on an anticipated volume of 20 million shares. On Friday, however, expectations were lowered and 10 million shares were sold at $12 and the shares rose in value marginally.

It's been speculated that economic conditions were mostly to blame for both the revised expectations as well as the tepid IPO performance. Clean Energy Fuels is an established company with at least some profitable history. The IPO is expected to fund growth in manufacturing capacity and product outlets, as well as to underwrite growth of the company's customer base. Clean Energy provides natural gas for municipal service trucks, buses, and other fleet vehicles. In 2006, Clean Energy had sales of $91 million but showed an operating loss of nearly $9 million. Currently the company has an estimated market value of about $600 million, and Mr. Pickens owns about 73% of the company.