Elon Musk, the fanciful boss of Tesla, is now free to claim a first immediate pay of nearly 775 million dollars (about 700 million euros). This is the result of a tailor-made compensation program indexed to the financial performance of the electric vehicle manufacturer.
In a document sent Thursday to the authority of the American financial markets, the SEC, the Californian group indicates that Elon Musk, his emblematic boss and co-founder, can now get his hands on the first tranche of a package of stock options making part of a compensation program announced in 2018.
Only 1% of the firm's shares
Tesla shareholders at the time granted the manager, over a ten-year period, 20.3 million Tesla shares, equivalent to $ 56 billion (about 51 billion euros). However, it can only receive them in increments of 1%, or 1.69 million shares, each time Tesla crosses a threshold on the stock market and reaches a certain level of turnover and profit. Twelve market capitalization thresholds to be crossed have been determined, the highest of which is 650 billion dollars (around 590 billion euros) to be reached by 2028.
“As of the date of this document, one of the milestones relating to (annual) revenues of $ 20 billion (approximately 18 billion euros) and a market capitalization of 100 billion (approximately 91 billion euros) has been reached. and authenticated by the board, ”wrote Tesla. Elon Musk can therefore request to benefit from approximately 1.69 million shares. If he then sells them, he will pocket a capital gain. It is this capital gain which corresponds to the amount of $ 774.84 million taking into account the closing price of Tesla shares on Thursday, on Wall Street, the American Stock Exchange.
He doesn't get paid
The special remuneration of Elon Musk, who transformed Tesla into the world leader in the electric car, is challenged in court by a shareholder accusing the board of directors of having failed in its obligations.
Aside from stock options based on Tesla's financial performance, Musk does not receive a salary. But he already owns 18.5% of Tesla's capital, a stake valued at more than 24 billion dollars (nearly 22 billion euros) , according to FactSet.
He distinguished himself in recent weeks by a standoff with the California authorities to get production to resume at the Tesla factory in Fremont, near San Francisco (California). The site had been closed, like other auto factories in the country, to limit the spread of Covid-19.
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Wednesday, SpaceX, the space company created by Elon Musk, had to postpone to Saturday, due to bad weather, its first manned flight in the International Space Station.