Thursday, October 3

Norway’s $1 Trillion Wealth fund Opposes Elon’s Double Role at Tesla

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), world’s largest sovereign wealth fund on Wednesday said that it had backed an initiative to wrest the role of chairman away from Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.

The proposal which represented the strongest challenge yet to Musk’s grip on the Silicon Valley car company got defeated Tesla’s annual meeting of stockholders on Tuesday.

Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund is in favour of dividing the roles of CEO and chairman to strengthen corporate governance.

Furthermore, the fund voted against the re-election of board member Antonio Gracias but favoured the re-appointment of Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal and James Murdoch.

It is also crucial to note that NBIM had voted against Elon Musk’s proposed pay package that was valued at $2.6 billion by Tesla and may become worth more in future, though it was approved by a majority of shareholders.

Tesla had said that the pay package, an all-or-nothing agreement is worth $2.6 billion looking at the current stock values, but it could increase significantly if Musk reaches the 12 incredible targets which include raising the company’s market capitalization tenfold to $650 billion. Elon Musk also has to increase adjusted pretax income and the revenue of the company.

The Norwegian fund which owns currently owns 1.4 percent of globally listed shares held a 0.48 per cent stake in Tesla at the end of 2017, worth $225 million, as revealed from the fund’s own data.