Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund sold almost all of its Tesla Inc. shares last quarter, nearly exiting what had been one of the largest holdings in the electric-car maker.
The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund held just 39,151 shares at the end of the year, according to a regulatory filing. The fund previously had more than 8.2 million shares and ranked among the five biggest owners, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The fund sold as Tesla went on an epic run to end the year, powered by a surprise profit and faster rollout of its Model Y crossover. The stock has built on that momentum in 2020, surging about 121 per cent after posting record deliveries and another report of better-than-expected earnings.
The Saudis factored prominently in Elon Musk’s short-lived effort to take Tesla private a year and a half ago. After a report emerged that the fund had built a roughly US$2 billion stake in the company, the billionaire chief executive officer tweeted that he had “funding secured” for a buyout.
Musk’s posts stirred unease among Saudi officials about the publicity surrounding their potential role, people familiar with the matter said at the time. They were unhappy when Musk described his talks with the fund in an August 2018 blog post and said the negotiations justified his claim to have lined up enough funding to go private.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later sued, resulting in Tesla and Musk each paying US$20 million in penalties and the CEO giving up his position as chairman for three years.
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