Eva Deschamps / November 13, 2021
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold more than $6.9 billion worth of his company's stock in one week, according to documents released Friday by the U.S. securities regulator.
In total, the South African-born man in his fifties sold more than 5.1 million shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer, of which about 4.2 million were held in a trust. In terms of value, this is one of the largest disposals ever seen over such a short period of time, without the sale being forced or being part of an estate. It also significantly affected the share price, which lost 15.4% over the week. And even before the first documents indicating the sales were published on Wednesday by the regulator, the SEC, Elon Musk had himself alerted the market about his intentions. Last Saturday, the boss, who likes to make big moves, took a poll on his Twitter account to find out whether or not he should sell 10% of his Tesla shares. Some 57.9% of the 3.5 million voters had answered favorably.
The shares sold by Elon Musk this week were therefore sold at a significantly lower price than if he had sold them before his tweet. Some documents revealed that the facetious businessman had initiated the sale of at least some of these shares as early as September 14 and had therefore not determined himself according to the poll. At the end of the operation, Elon Musk still held, according to the last document filed Friday with the SEC, 1.22 million Tesla shares in open access as well as another 166.2 million housed in a trust, with a total value of 173 billion dollars at the closing price of Friday. The approximately $5.9 billion in proceeds from this week's stock sale is expected to be subject to at least $1.4 billion in capital gains tax.