Tesla needs over $1 billion in cash over the next 6 months, and Wall Street is going nuts figuring out where it's going to come from (TSLA)

Between the moment you're reading this and the end of 2018 Tesla needs to come up with about a billion dollars to give to creditors.

And right now it doesn't look like the company has it.

So forget the libel lawsuits and the Twitter wars, the SEC investigations and tearful interviews from CEO Elon Musk. Forget the race to 5,000 Model 3s and the "production hell" turned "delivery hell" and all the hours of rework. Try to forget all the drama with hip-hop star Azealia Banks (if you possibly can).

Remember instead that Tesla is — up until now — a profitless public company with $11 billion in long-term debt, trying to scale and survive in a capital-intensive industry where margins are thin.

And in remembering that you'll understand that Tesla's controversial CEO Elon Musk has yet another enemy to add to his list along with the short sellers and doubters — and that enemy is math.

These are the breaks

The signs of Tesla's cash crunch are here and there for anyone to find them.

The company is trying to renegotiate more favorable payment schedules and/or rebates with its suppliers and vendors. Back in August, 18 of 22 respondents in a survey of auto parts suppliers said Tesla was a danger to their companies, according to the WSJ. At least one supplier has gone broke waiting for Tesla to pay up. There are over a dozen mechanics liens filed against Tesla in Alameda County, home of the company's Fremont, California factory too.

These are signs that Tesla is trying to stretch out the cash that it does have. As of June 30, the company's total current liabilities of $9.1 billion devour its $6.7 billion in assets. That means it's about $2.4 billion in the hole when it comes to working capital.

But this is Wall Street, and numbers like that don't necessarily mean a company is finished when it has a $50 billion market cap and an illustrious CEO. As of June 30, Tesla was still holding around $2.4 billion in cash, $942 million of which are customer deposits for the Model 3. That leaves the company with $1.4 billion excluding deposits.

And it has expenses coming due. In November the company needs to shell out $230 million for a convertible bond payment. And by the end of the year, it needs to have an additional $920 million in the bank to pay a loan due in March. It also has a small $157 million non-recourse loan due in December.

Add that all together and you have an ugly scenario playing out on Tesla's balance sheet, and in that scenario Tesla's $1.4 billion in cash shrinks down to just over $60 million in cash, Model 3 deposits aside.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment about these figures.

In finance, there is something called the quick ratio or (if you're fun), the acid-test ratio. It's a company's current assets divided by its liabilities. In the scenario we just walked through, Tesla's acid-test ratio ends up at 0.20. In 2008, right before it went bankrupt, GM's acid-test ratio 0.30.

Complications

All of this is why in March, just after downgrading Tesla's credit rating, Moody's said the company would have to raise capital to continue operations and pay off debt. It estimated Tesla would blow through $2 billion in cash through the year and remain cash flow negative through 2019.

In other words, Moody's was saying the Model 3 ramp up wasn't going to provide anything like the sort of cash windfall Tesla needs going into 2019.

In fact, by Tesla's own estimates, it may not even make the company profitable. Musk said on Tesla's second quarter conference call that it would be profitable the following quarter by making 7,000 cars a week (5,000 Model 3s and 2,000 Model S and X's).

At the same time, though, he guided to 50,000- 55,000 Model 3s manufactured in the third quarter — a goal the company met by delivering 55,840 Model 3 cars and producing 53,239 of them. That's just over 4,000 cars a week. Not enough for Musk's promised profitability.

All that said, despite Moody's dire predictions and Tesla's own disconnect between projections and profitability, Musk has said repeatedly through the year that he will not raise money. So where is this cash going to come from?

Tesla bulls say it all the time — "don't bet against Elon." The company has been on the edge of financial ruin before and survived to see another quarter. Perhaps that's why despite these troubles, Macquarie analysts Maynard Um and Tim Liu just initiated coverage of the company, setting a $430 price target. They are confident that Musk can yet again pull a rabbit out of his hat using a combination of electric vehicle credits (ZEV credits) and financial engineering to make it through the 2nd half of 2019 with Tesla intact.

From their report:

Our thesis is also predicated on TSLA having enough levers to get over the debt maturity hump including cash flow from ZEV credit (estimate potential for $500-$600 million in 2H 18) & Model 3 sales, access to $1.2B unused debt commitment, potential for credit amendments, et al. While CEO Elon Musk has said the company does not have to raise more capital, we believe a raise through equity would be beneficial in further strengthening its longer-term outlook as well as providing a cushion in case of any unexpected periods of economic softening.

Gene Munster, founder of venture capital firm Loup Ventures, told Business Insider he sees Tesla's survival playing out a different way. To him, things like ZEV credits are just noise. What will really bring Tesla through this period is good old fashioned cash generation through sales.

Model 3 sales hold, and gross margins hit 15% during Q3 2018.
If that's the case, the company stays cash flow neutral but shouldn't have a problem with its $230 million and $157 million payments. That takes Tesla's cash down to just under $2 billion.
The tricky part is Q4 2018, where Tesla would need to increase gross margins to 20% and sell more cars.
If it can do that it can generate $1 billion in cash, according to Munster. Then it starts the new year with $3 billion — enough to pay off its debt.

From 'manufacturing hell' to 'logistics hell'

Getting Model 3 gross margins to 20% will not be easy, and that is in part because of what Musk once called "manufacturing hell." Over the last year, Tesla has had difficulty streamlining and cheapening the process of making Model 3s.

And then there came a new hell — one that Musk called a "delivery logistics hell."

On Tesla's second quarter conference call, Musk said that he found it was "amazing" how much of Tesla's ". "

It is unclear what he meant by that.

Software problems are solved by hours of coding and another release. Manufacturing problems are different. They may require a full redesign of a part, ordering different tools, or reimagining an assembly line. Most importantly, they are incredibly expensive to fix.

"

Detroit will tell you that these problems could've been avoided had Tesla built cars more like legacy automakers — slowly, methodically, with plans perfected before manufacturing started. But current and former employees at the company have told Business Insider that that kind of planning is not part of the company's ethos.

"I realized Tesla was in financial trouble from day one," the VP continued. "The company has been able to convince everyone they're in growth mode ... but how much more patience is Wall Street going to have?"

If Tesla's finances play out the way Munster envisions, then Wall Street will soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Investors will be able to focus on Tesla's other problems — a controversial CEO, issues with regulators, and more.

Tesla needs over $1 billion in cash over the next 6 months, and Wall Street is going nuts figuring out where it's going to come from (TSLA)

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