“There is a lot of talk these days about those rich people who, in order not to pay taxes on capital gains, do not sell their shares. So how about if I sell 10% of Tesla?”. Elon Musk has made another of his own. On Friday evening, he launched this proposal with a tweet addressed to his 67,5 million followers, adding that "I will respect the outcome of the vote whatever it is". And we will soon know if the pyrotechnician richest man on the planet is a man worthy of faith: 3,8 million people responded to the unusual referendum. And the majority, 58,5% of the voters, said that yes, Elon the great, a man who alone is worth more than all of Nike, must make the "sacrifice": sell Tesla stock for 20 billion dollars thus bending to pay 4 billion in taxes. And the Stock Exchanges believe it.
This morning, in the first exchanges in Europe, Tesla already lost 7 percent anticipating the obvious reaction of Wall Street even if it is not at all clear if and how Musk will implement his promise, thus displacing the US Senate where a extraordinary withdrawal against the 700 super-rich who have found one or more ways to evade the tax. Like Musk, who has developed a sophisticated mechanism based on buyback options that are triggered when Tesla exceeds certain pre-set prices. Which allowed him to exceed 300 billion in personal assets without paying a cent to Uncle Sam.
Now things are changing, thanks to an unprecedented public offer of sale which, as usual, upsets the rules of the market. For the desperation of the Sec, the stock exchange that has forced Musk to have his tweets certified by a lawyer, after too many informal sorties that have sent Wall Street soaring. But how can a shareholder be denied the right to say "I want to sell stuff for twenty billion"? It is an unprecedented case of insider trading in reverse. Or so it seems.
In reality, just to think badly, the detail cannot escape that from tomorrow Tesla will have one more competitor on the market: the Rivian, the electric car that boasts among its shareholders Amazon, 20% owner, which has already ordered 100 thousand pick-ups to make deliveries in the United States, and Ford, which owns a 5%, which in the last two years has actively collaborated in the take-off of the quasi-start-up from Illinois, founded in 2009 by a newly graduated engineer, RJ Scaringe, aiming to deal with sports cars. But, in the face of Musk's successes, Rivian has shed its skin: from the design to the line, everything is designed according to the electric, without any compromise with the old way of making the car. A formula that the financial markets liked, skeptical of the transformation of the old combustion car giants.
It is explained in this way the unbelieveriIpo bile awaiting Rivian this morning: the company, which closed the road show on Friday, will land on the market with a collection lower only than that of Alibaba and Facebook, for a capitalization of at least 60 billion dollars, more than Honda or Stellantis. All this after having made the first deliveries of the three models in the catalog only last September. It seems crazy, at least at first glance, but to which the big names in the market contribute – Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan – who will take care of the placement of the title. And it's not just the Northeastern company that is launching the challenge to Tesla, the standard bearer of California which has expanded to include Texas.
The. will also participate in the challenge of the electric car Lucid Group, landed in July on Wall Street thanks to the combination with a SPAC, with a valuation of more than 50 billion dollars. Together with two Chinese companies – XPeng and Li Auto – which, despite the Cold War climate with Beijing, have entered the States with excellent prospects. Finally, there is to register the Volvo boom, the group controlled by the Chinese Geely started to produce only electric cars from 2030. The company, already in bankruptcy before the Chinese intervention, traded after the debut on the price list at 23 billion dollars.
In short, the financial markets have decreed that electricity, today around 9% of world sales, is destined for geometric growth while everything else is starting to rapidly lose value, in the face of the difficulties in managing a difficult transition on a social level . Hence the decision to focus on companies capable of betting everything on electricity right away, according to the Musk model. And he, who controls 17% of Tesla (worth 208 billion) takes advantage of it to raise cash before taking off for space.
