Tesla Motors IPO Probably Generated $15 Million for CEO Musk
Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk stands for a portrait outside the Nasdaq Marketsite in New York. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Motors Inc., made at least $24 million from the electric-car maker’s initial public offering, restoring some of the wealth he’s staked on the company and other startups.
Tesla set a price of $17 a share and Musk sold 1.42 million shares, including an over-allotment to underwriters, according to filings and data compiled by Bloomberg. Tesla rose 41 percent yesterday, the second-biggest rally for a U.S. IPO this year.
Musk, 39, who made about $300 million selling PayPal Inc. and Zip2 Corp., said in February he had just $650,000 in “liquid assets” and got loans from friends to pay fees and support for estranged wife Justine Musk, according to a divorce- related filing. The value of his remaining 26.9 million Tesla shares was about $641 million, based on today’s close.
Tesla, the Palo Alto, California-based maker of the $109,000 electric Roadster bought by Brad Pitt and George Clooney, is using proceeds from the IPO to begin production of the battery-powered Model S sedan and develop a range of rechargeable models. Along with celebrity customers, Tesla investors include Daimler AG. Toyota Motor Corp. said in May it will buy a $50 million stake.
Tesla fell 6 cents to $23.83 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Energy Department Loan
The company also won $465 million of U.S. Energy Department loans last year to expand production and sales of electric vehicles and components. Terms of the federal loan agreement require Musk and other top Tesla executives to retain at least 65 percent of the company’s shares. Musk has said in interviews he’s invested at least $70 million of his own money in Tesla.
A divorce settlement won’t affect his stake, Musk said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday.
“The Department of Energy, the underwriters, underwriters council, other investors have done their due diligence,” Musk said. “To the best of their assessment, they don’t think it will have an effect.”
Musk is also CEO of closely held Space Exploration Technologies Inc., or SpaceX, a Hawthorne, California-based builder of rockets to carry satellites into space and supply the International Space Station. He also leads SolarCity Inc., a solar-panel installer.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Michael Tsang in New York at mtsang1@bloomberg.net
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