(New York) Tesla chief executive Elon Musk sold more than $ 6.9 billion in shares in his company in one week, according to documents released by the U.S. markets regulator on Friday.
In total, the 50-year-old born in South Africa has sold more than 5.1 million shares of the manufacturer of electric vehicles, of which about 4.2 million were housed in a trust.
In terms of value, this is one of the largest disposals ever seen over such a tight period without the sale being constrained or falling within the framework of an estate.
It also significantly heckled the share price, which lost 15.4% over the week.
And even before the first documents signaling the sales were released on Wednesday by the regulator, the SEC, Elon Musk had taken it upon himself to alert the market to his intentions.
Last Saturday, the boss fan of brilliance had thus carried out a survey, from his Twitter account, to find out whether or not he should part with 10% of his Tesla shares. Some 57.9% of the 3.5 million voters responded positively.
Monday, at the opening of Wall Street, the title had already plummeted, and has fallen further in value since.
The shares that Elon Musk sold this week were therefore sold at a significantly lower price than if he had sold them before his tweet.
The entrepreneur thus lost, as a result, several hundred million dollars in unrealized profits.
Some documents have revealed that the facetious businessman had initiated the sale of at least some of these shares as of September 14 and was therefore not determined according to the survey.
At the end of the operation, Elon Musk still held, according to the last document filed Friday with the SEC, 1.22 million Tesla shares in open access as well as 166.2 million other housed in a trust, of worth a total of $ 173 billion at Friday’s closing price.
The approximately $ 5.9 billion withdrawn from the sale of shares this week is expected to be taken at least 1.4 billion for capital gains tax.