Musk sells Tesla shares worth $5.5b days after Twitter takeover

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold US$3.95 billion (S$5.5 billion) worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, according to US regulatory filings, days after he completed his purchase of Twitter Inc for US$44 billion.

Musk, whose net worth dropped below US$200 billion after investors dumped Tesla stock, unloaded 19.5 million shares between Friday and Tuesday, filings published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

The latest share sale leaves Musk with a stake of roughly 14 per cent in Tesla, according to a Reuters calculation.

The purpose of the sale was not disclosed.

The latest sale dump comes as analysts had widely expected Musk to sell additional Tesla shares to finance the Twitter deal.

Musk, the world's richest man, had asserted in April he was done selling Tesla stock. Still, he went on to sell another US$6.9 billion worth Tesla shares in August and said the sale was conducted to pay for the social media platform.

Musk, the world's richest man, had about US$20 billion in cash after selling a part of his stake in Tesla, including the sales made last year.

This would have required him to raise an additional US$2 billion to US$3 billion to finance the takeover, according to a Reuters calculation.

Tesla has lost nearly half its market value and Musk's net worth slumped by US$70 billion ever since he bid for Twitter in April.

Twitter and Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Musk took over Twitter last month and has engaged in drastic measures including sacking half the staff and a plan to charge for blue check verification marks.

The billionaire pledged to provide US$46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the acquisition, which covered the US$44 billion price tag and the closing costs.

Banks, including Morgan Stanleyand Bank of America Corp, committed to provide US$13 billion in debt financing.

Musk's US$33.5 billion equity commitment included his 9.6 per cent Twitter stake, which is worth US$4 billion, and the US$7.1 billion he had secured from equity investors, including Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Musk had tried to walk away from the deal in May, alleging that Twitter understated the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. This led to a series of lawsuits between the two parties.

Source: Reuters