T. Rowe, Fidelity Sold More Than 20% of Their Tesla Shares in Second Quarter
August 15 2018 - 5:52PM
Dow Jones News
By Mengqi Sun
Two prominent Wall Street investors pared their holdings in
Tesla Inc. before Chief Executive Elon Musk disclosed publicly that
he wanted to take the electric-car maker private, according to
filings.
Mr. Musk needs support from a majority of existing shareholders
to pull off his surprise proposal, which he revealed on Twitter
last week.
Two of the biggest holders, T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and
Fidelity Investments, reduced their stakes by more than 20% in the
quarter ending June 30, according to FactSet. T. Rowe sold 3.7
million shares and Fidelity sold 3.1 million shares.
It is not known why T. Rowe and Fidelity sold the shares. The
two investors still own more than 20 million shares, according to
FactSet, and that makes them two of Tesla's five largest
institutional holders. The money managers declined to comment.
Six of Tesla's other top 15 institutional shareholders also sold
smaller stakes during the second quarter, according to FactSet.
That included funds or accounts controlled by Vanguard Group,
BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to
FactSet.
A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on why the shares were
sold.
In a separate blog post Monday, Mr. Musk said he has talked to
Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund to provide the cash to take
the company private and that the buyout would require far less than
$70 billion, the approximate market value based on his proposed
price of $420 per share.
"My best estimate right now is that approximately two-thirds of
shares owned by all current investors would roll over into a
private Tesla," he wrote in the blog post.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has inquired about Mr.
Musk's basis for writing on Twitter last week that he had "funding
secured" for the deal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2018 17:37 ET (21:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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