Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by rory096 on Thursday April 12, 2018 @11:20PM
(#16826915)
Tesla paid back (almost all of) SolarCity's solar bonds in 2017. Only Musk personally (and his cousins) still hold that debt.
[0] https://electrek.co/2017/04/14/tesla-solar-bonds-elon-musk-s...
Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by thomaskcr on Thursday April 12, 2018 @11:51PM
(#16827015)
That's definitely not true -- They have a $230m Solarcity bond due Nov 2018 and then another $566m inherited Solarcity bond due Nov 2019.
What was paid back were "Solar bonds", which were not SolarCity bonds.
I can see why you would think that though - the PR around that only mentioned what they were paying early, not what was being inherited. (I think by design, but I have a cynical view of Tesla's relationship with the truth so that's only an opinion).
Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by rory096 on Thursday April 12, 2018 @11:58PM
(#16827041)
As far as I know, solar bonds are the only type of SolarCity bond that SpaceX owned.
[0] http://fortune.com/2015/08/07/this-is-why-elon-musks-spacex-...
Additionally - I don't know where price-wise Musk gets margin called on his Tesla stock, but I do think him borrowing against it is a significant risk for Tesla. In my personal opinion, Tesla's biggest asset is Musk's fan base - I think it would really significantly impact Tesla if Musk got margin called and couldn't (or doesn't) cover and lost his status as the largest shareholder of Tesla. I think he would lose more interest in the company and you risk his fans no longer seeing Tesla as "his" company.
I don't think I'm alone in this opinion either, Musk has borrowed enough against his shares to warrant getting margin called mention as a risk in the 10-K. (Not to say its wrong for him to borrow against them, I'm sure I would do the same - I just think doing it to fund a private company he is heavily involved in (and distracts him from his public company) links them financially in a way I would personally not be comfortable with if I were an investor in Tesla).