Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, sold $8.5 billion worth of the electric carmaker’s stock, according to US securities filings, likely to help fund his proposed acquisition of Twitter.
“There are no further TSLA sales planned after today,” Musk declared in a tweet. According to the papers on Thursday and yesterday, he sold around 9.6 million shares this week or about 5.6 percent of his holding in the company.
It was unclear whether Musk’s recent Tesla stock sales had been reported in full.
The sale comes after Musk said on Monday that he had agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in cash, transferring ownership of the social media network used by millions of people and world leaders to the world’s richest person. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is $268 billion.
Musk stated that he will contribute a $21 billion equity investment as part of the purchase.
It was unclear how the billionaire planned to finance the remaining $12.5 billion in stock funding. Musk owns a 43.61 percent ownership in SpaceX, a $100 billion rocket company that isn’t publicly traded.
In morning trade yesterday, Tesla shares were up approximately 5%.
Since Musk’s April 4 admission of a more than 9pc stake in Twitter, they have dropped approximately 20%.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Musk has been looking for partners to lower his equity investment in the purchase, but it is far from likely that such a partner will materialise.
This is his first Tesla stock sale since he sold $16.4 billion worth of shares in November and December after polling Twitter users about selling 10% of his Tesla holdings.
Musk announced on Twitter that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 as a result of exercising stock options that are supposed to expire this year.
Some traders have been concerned this week that Musk may not have enough cash on hand to cover his $21 billion cash contribution and may pull out of the agreement, putting downward pressure on Twitter shares.
Musk received pledges for $13 billion in loans secured against Twitter and a $12.5 billion margin loan related to his Tesla equity as part of the Twitter financing arrangement.
