Tesla's Elon Musk Approaches a $1.8 Billion Bonanza

Tesla's blistering stock rally is putting Chief Executive Elon Musk in reach of a payday potentially worth $1.8 billion (roughly Rs. 13,492 crores), his second jackpot from the electric car maker in about two months.

Fueled by stronger-than-expected car deliveries, shares of Tesla have surged over 40 percent in the past seven sessions, elevating the company's market capitalisation to $259 billion (roughly Rs. 19.41 lakh crores). More important for Musk's personal finances, Tesla's six-month average market capitalisation has reached a record $138 billion (roughly Rs. 10.34 lakh crores).

Hitting a six-month average market capitalisation of $150 billion (roughly Rs. 11.24 lakh crores) would trigger the vesting of the second of 12 tranches of options granted to the billionaire to buy Tesla stock as part of his 2018 pay package. In early May, Musk's first tranche vested after Tesla's six-month average stock market value reached $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7.49 lakh crores).

Musk has already achieved targets related to Tesla's financial growth that are also required in order to vest the approaching options tranche.

Each tranche gives Musk the option to buy 1.69 million Tesla shares at $350.02 each (roughly Rs. 26,240). At Tesla's current stock price of $1,397 (roughly Rs. 1,04,740), Musk would theoretically be able to sell the shares related to the tranche that vested in May and the upcoming tranche for a combined profit of over $3.5 billion (roughly Rs. 26,242 crores), or $1.8 billion (roughly Rs. 13,492 crores) per tranche.

Musk's first tranche was worth about $700 million (roughly Rs. 5,248 crores) in May, when it vested, but its value has since increased along with Tesla's stock price.

Tesla has surged 500 percent over the past year as the company increased sales of its Model 3 sedan.

Tesla last week reported higher-than-expected second-quarter vehicle deliveries, defying plummeting sales in the wider auto industry as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the global economy.

The solid delivery numbers heightened expectations of a profitable second quarter, which would mark four consecutive profitable quarters, a first for Tesla, and a key hurdle to be added to the S&P 500 index.

Musk, who is also the majority owner and CEO of the SpaceX rocket maker, receives no salary, only the options in his pay package. A full payoff of all tranches would surpass anything previously granted to US executives. When Tesla unveiled Musk's pay package, it said he could theoretically reap as much as $55.8 billion (roughly Rs. 4.18 lakh crores) if no new shares were issued. However, Tesla has since issued shares to compensate employees, and also sold shares in secondary offers, including a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,998 crores) stock sale in February.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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