San Francisco/Southfield — Elon Musk needs to raise at least $1.15bn more to bring his more affordable Model 3 to market. His believers, along with investors who buy into the vision of Tesla, could hardly be happier. After burning through cash in late 2016 and warning Wall Street that the company was "close to the edge" Tesla announced on Wednesday that it would sell new stock and convertible securities while preparing for volume production and deliveries of its first mass-market car later in 2017. News of a big stock sale typically depresses a company’s share price because it dilutes the value of investors’ holdings. But this is Musk, whose vertically integrated clean-energy company has captured imaginations on and off Wall Street even as the Palo Alto, California-based company has struggled to be profitable. Instead of falling, Tesla stock rose in late trading. The proceeds from Tesla’s offering of $250m in shares and $750m in convertible debt will be used to strengthen its balanc...
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