NEW YORK: Zipcar, the growing US car-sharing service, has raised $174.3 million as it began trading Thursday in its initial public offering, according to regulatory filings.
The company set its price at $18 per share for the 9.7 million shares it offered for market, it said late Wednesday, exceeding the $14-16 per share range that had been expected from a previous filing.
The common stock will trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "ZIP."
Zipcar, which operates in 14 major US metropolitan markets and on more than 150 university campuses in Britain, Canada and the United States, has never made a profit.
It reported a $14.1-million loss on revenue of $186 million for fiscal year 2010, and a loss of $4.6 million on revenue of $131.2 million a year earlier.
The company warned in a SEC filing last year that it "may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability."
The service, which lets members rent cars for as little as an hour, has however said it has identified more than 100 global metropolitan areas ripe for expansion and hundreds of universities as "attractive markets for car sharing."
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Zipcar was founded in 2000 and has a fleet over more than 8,000 cars. Zipcar acquired rival Flexcar in 2007 and Britain's Streetcar last year.
Zipcar's 560,000 members can rent vehicles by phone, Internet or by using wireless mobile devices. A user unlocks a car using a keyless entry card called a "Zipcard."
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