Two analysts had asked him about a possible capital increase at the Tesla 2019 business conference call, and both had Tesla CEO Elon Musk flashed off. In any case, Tesla had more money than the company could reasonably spend, Musk said to the first questioner; Neither a takeover nor a debt buy-back are currently possible reasons for a capital increase, he explained to the second. That was two weeks ago – and now Tesla wants to raise two billion dollars in new capital.
The company announced on Thursday before the US stock exchange opened. When asked questions, the analysts had already indicated that the steep rise in Tesla’s share price was a good opportunity to put new shares on the stock exchange – and at that time the price was still around 30 percent lower than at the end of this week. In fact, CEO Musk had never ruled out a capital increase in his answers, just described it as unnecessary.
At Tesla, that has a certain system. Even before the recent $ 2.7 billion capital increase in May 2019 – partly in convertible bonds – Musk had initially dismissed such a measure. After a loss in the first quarter of 2019, he then indicated it and followed up with action a few days later. And something else was repeated now: instead of falling, as stocks usually do when a capital increase is carried out, Tesla’s rose on Thursday after a weak start by around 5 percent to $ 804.
This was how it was with the capital increase in May 2019. Back then, you could say, Musk initiated the turnaround for Tesla by deciding to go back to the financial market. After a week-long jump after the announcement, the share initially gave way again. At the beginning of June, however, it began an almost uninterrupted rise, which became increasingly steep from the end of the year and especially this year.
Unlike then, Tesla really doesn’t really need fresh money at the moment. On the other hand, given the ambitious and long-term plans of CEO Musk, more financial leeway cannot hurt – especially if it is cheap.
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