(Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday a July 31 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund convinced him he could secure funding to take the electric car-maker private, but that he was still talking to the fund and other investors as he seeks to nail down financing.
Musk’s latest disclosure comes six days after he surprised investors by announcing on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private at a price of $420 per share and that funding was “secured.”
Since then, no investors have stepped forward publicly as being involved with the plan, and Musk’s tweet is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the subject of lawsuits brought against him by investors.
Tesla shares were down 0.3 percent after opening sharply higher. The company declined to comment beyond the blog post.
Musk on Monday said he is talking to other potential investors but did not provide any details on the exact source of financing. He also said he is still trying to gauge how many existing shareholders would keep their stake in a new private company, which would determine how much funding is needed.
“I left the July 31st 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,” Musk said.
“This is why I referred to ‘funding secured’ in the August 7th announcement.”
The Saudi fund over nearly two years had approached him repeatedly about taking the company private, Musk said, and the latest meeting came after it took a nearly 5 percent stake in Tesla.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
