MUSK IN TALKS WITH ADVISERS TO TAKE TESLA PRIVATE TRANSPORT

Electric car maker’s chief has already posted his detailed vision of how such a deal could come about

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk tweeted he was working with buyout company Silver Lake and investment bank Goldman Sachs as financial advisers on his plan to take the US electric car maker private.

The announcement represents the latest effort by Mr Musk to add credibility to his proposed $72 billion (Dh264.5bn) deal for Tesla, following his tweet last week that funding for it was “secured”. That earlier tweet has triggered investor lawsuits as well as an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into the accuracy of his statement.

Mr Musk also posted in a blog post on Monday a more detailed vision of how a Tesla privatisation deal could work, but shares in the car maker ended flat, indicating investor scepticism over its feasibility.

A source familiar with the matter said Silver Lake was offering its assistance to Mr Musk in his exploration of a deal without compensation, and had not been hired as a financial adviser in an official capacity. The company is known for putting together leveraged buyouts in the technology sector rather than providing investment banking advice.

Moreover, Silver Lake, which contributed $1.4bn in equity to Michael Dell’s deal in 2013 to take the eponymous US computer maker private, is not at present discussing participating in the potential Tesla deal as an investor, the source added.

Mr Musk also said law firms Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Munger, Tolles & Olson would be legal advisers on the plan.

The Tesla chief shocked markets last week with the tweeted announcement that he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 a share. Tesla shares ended trading on Monday at $356.41.

He said earlier that the manager of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had voiced support for the company going private several times, including as recently as two weeks ago, but also said that talks continue with the fund and other investors.

“I left the July 31 meeting [with the Saudi fund] with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving,” Mr Musk said.

“This is why I referred to ‘funding secured’ in the August 7 announcement.”

The Saudi fund over nearly two years had approached him repeatedly about taking the company private, Mr Musk said, and the latest meeting came after it took a nearly 5 per cent stake in Tesla.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund manages more than $230bn in assets, but about 65 per cent of that is stakes in large Saudi companies and most of the rest has been committed in overseas deals such as funding commitments to Blackstone Group’s US infrastructure fund or SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund.

The Saudi fund intends to sell its $70bn stake in Saudi Basic Industries to oil giant Aramco, which could free up funds for new deals, but that sale may take months to conclude.

Mr Musk said that since his Twitter post on the possibility of a deal Yasir Al Rumayyan, managing director of the PIF, had expressed support for proceeding, subject to financial and other due diligence.

Discussing full details on the plan, including the source and nature of the funding, would be “premature” now, he said.

A major investment from Saudi Arabia would be likely to trigger a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which scrutinises deals for potential national security concerns.

Jeremy Zucker, co-head of Dechert’s International Trade practice, said two key determinations would be made for a deal to be moved forward: whether Tesla contained critical technologies; and whether the involvement of Saudi financing could be construed as a national security issue.