Elon Musk sells his US$3,6bn Tesla stock

Elon Musk, who lost his No 1 spot on Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s richest people this week, unloaded Tesla stock for the fourth time this year.

Tesla’s chief executive officer sold almost 22 million shares of the electric-car maker for US$3,58 billion, a filing showed late Wednesday in the US. The transactions happened between December 12 and December 14.

Tesla shares have plunged 55 percent this year as investors grow increasingly concerned about Musk’s US$44 billion purchase of Twitter, adding to worries about rising interest rates that make cars more expensive for consumers and demand issues in China, Tesla’s largest market after the US.

Over the weekend, Musk — who is eager to stoke engagement on the social-media platform he now owns — attacked a former Twitter executive and tweeted out conspiracy theories that have alarmed even his most long-time fans.

Musk tried for months to get out of the Twitter deal but failed. To raise enough cash for the purchase, he offloaded more than US$15 billion in Tesla shares — about US$8,5 billion in April, then another US$6,9 billion in August. In November, after vowing he was done selling, he unloaded another US$3,95 billion of his stake.

Forgot to say one thing at Tesla annual shareholders meeting: just as my money was the first in, it will be the last out.

Musk used significant amounts of borrowed money that now sits on Twitter’s balance sheet to help finance the acquisition. Twitter’s debt load has jumped to about $13 billion, up from US$1,7 billion pre-deal, along with other types of bonds that could be converted into stock.– Bloomberg

Twitter now faces annual interest payments approaching US$1,2 billion — which could get even more expensive given that the interest rates on about half of that debt aren’t locked in and will rise with the market.

“At the risk of stating the obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when the Fed keeps raising rates,” Musk tweeted this week.

Musk’s recent sales shrink his stake in the company to roughly 13 percent, according to Bloomberg data. Musk, who has been Tesla’s CEO since 2008, is still the largest shareholder. As of Wednesday’s close, he was worth US$160,9 billion, ranking No. 2 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after France’s Bernard Arnault. His fortune has dropped by US$109,4 billion this year.