Chief Executive, Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, is closer to earning the first $346 million tranche of options in a record-breaking pay package. This comes after the electric auto-maker’s stock did more than double in the last three months.
Shares of Tesla surged 9% to a record high already this week and would need to rise another 6% to put Tesla’s stock market value at $100 billion. If sustained between one-month and six-month average, it would trigger the vesting of the first of 12 tranches of options granted to Musk to buy Tesla stock.
Meanwhile, Musk already hit an operational target that was also necessary for the options to vest. In 2019, Musk hit two operational milestones, raising revenue above $20 billion and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $1.5 billion over four straight quarters. Tesla’s “adjusted” EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation, which totalled $617 million in the first 9 months of 2019
For Musk’s subsequent tranches to vest under the terms of the 2018 package, the company’s market cap would have to continue to sustainably rise by $50 billion increment over the agreement’s 10-year period, with the billionaire earning the full package if Tesla’s market capitalization reaches $650 billion and the electric car maker achieves revenue and profit targets.
However, Tesla was valued at about $53 billion when shareholders approved the pay package in January 2018 and faced a cash crunch, production delays and increasing competition from rivals, viewed the pay package as massively ambitious because it implied that the company’s value could grow as much as ten-fold in 10 years.
[READ MORE: Old Mutual’s sacked CEO has just lost a lawsuit against the company)
Musk currently owns about 34 million Tesla shares, equivalent to 19% of the company. His compensation package would let him buy another 20.3 million shares if all of his options vest.
Musk receives no salary or cash bonus, only options that vest based on Tesla’s market cap and milestones for growth, Reuters reported.
