Elon Musk accelerates disposal of Tesla shares

Elon Musk is accelerating his disposal of Tesla shares after last month's Twitter poll as he exercises more options.

The world’s richest person off-loaded another 934,091 shares for about $906.5 million to cover taxes on the exercise of 2.1 million options, according to regulatory filings dated Monday. He has already sold almost 12 million shares since he pledged on Twitter to get rid of 10 per cent of his Tesla stake – which would amount to about 17 million shares without taking into account his exercisable options.

Mr Musk said in September he would probably exercise a big chunk of options toward the end of the year and put a trading plan in place. The off-loading of stock began after he asked his Twitter followers on November 6th – a Saturday – whether he should cut his Tesla ownership. The overwhelming answer was “yes,” and he started his selling spree the following Monday.

He has since got rid of $12.7 billion worth of stock – including exactly 934,091 shares in each of the last six sales – and exercised almost 15 million options.

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Since then Tesla’s stock has lost 21 per cent from a peak on November 4th, trimming its gain this year to 37 per cent.

Musk, who was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” has added almost $98 billion to his fortune in 2021 and is now worth $253.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. – Bloomberg