Summary
Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP sold its $585 million Tesla stake over concerns about Elon Musk’s “controversial and exceptionally high” pay package and unspecified labor conditions.
ABP previously voted against Musk’s performance-based compensation, which has faced shareholder lawsuits and judicial scrutiny.
A Delaware judge recently invalidated the pay package, citing insufficient shareholder approval.
While Tesla’s Model Y remains popular in the Netherlands, European sales fell 15% in 2024.
ABP stated the divestment was not politically motivated despite Musk’s ties to the Trump administration.
The shareholders chose to do it, it’s their company, they can do whatever they want with it (as long as they weren’t misled as the judge has ruled they were).
Trying to control what the shareholders do with their company like that is not the way to solve a problem. And if you don’t own any voting shares, then you have no reason to complain about what they decide to do.
The payment comes out of their pocket, by the devaluation of their stock, when the options are issued and vested. They went into it knowing they’d make a shit load of money if he pulled it off, and he’d make a shit load of money too. The stock has 25x’d since the package was created.
Edit: Just to be clear here - A better way would be through a high tax bracket that would eat the vast majority of that away forcing him to sell most of the shares (or I guess alternatively sell SpaceX shares, it’d be his choice), but keep in mind it’d be at the rate when each set vests, so it’s not a tax bill on 55b, it’s a series of tax bills on smaller amounts.