Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk sold $4 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, U.S. securities filings show on Thursday, April 28.
Mr. Musk said in a tweet that “no further TSLA sales are planned after today.” According to the filings, he sold 4.4 million shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, representing 2.6% of his stake in the company.
The sale comes after Mr. Musk on Monday completed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion in cash, in a transaction that will see control of the social media platform used by millions of users and global leaders is populated is shifted to the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is $268 billion.
As part of the deal, Mr. Musk said he would provide a $21 billion equity commitment.
It’s not clear how he’ll fund the remaining $17 billion in equity funding. Mr. Musk owns a 43.61% stake in unlisted rocket company SpaceX, which is reportedly valued at $100 billion.
looking for partners
Mr Musk has been looking for partners to reduce his equity contribution to the deal, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that it is far from certain that such a partner will emerge.
This is his first Tesla stock sale since he ditched $16.4 billion in shares in November and December after polling Twitter users about the sale of 10% of his stake in the electric carmaker.
Mr Musk said on Twitter that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 as a result of his exercise of stock options that are scheduled to expire this year.
Some traders have worried this week that Mr. Musk may not have enough cash to fund his $21 billion cash deposit and walk out of the deal, weighing on Twitter stocks.
Tesla shares have fallen nearly 20% since Mr. Musk announced his over 9% stake in Twitter on April 4. Investors have raised concerns that Mr Musk may need to sell Tesla stock to fund his equity contribution to the takeover bid.
As part of the Twitter deal, Mr. Musk also took out a $12.5 billion margin loan tied to his Tesla shares. He had already borrowed around half of his Tesla shares.
