Elon Musk said late Wednesday in the US that resolutions to re-ratify his pay package and move Tesla Inc.’s legal home to Texas from Delaware are currently passing by “wide margins.”
The preliminary results are great news for Musk and for Tesla, which has been rallying support for both measures for weeks among large institutional investors and the company’s army of retail shareholders.
Tesla’s annual meeting is on June 13 and investors have been voting on the same $56 billion compensation package for Chief Executive Officer Musk that was voided by a Delaware court earlier this year.
The hotly contested pay package easily passed back in 2018 but was struck down in January by a judge in Delaware, who said investors weren’t fully informed of key details.
Under the plan, Musk is eligible for as much as $55.8 billion in stock options if Tesla hit certain milestones, which the company has reached.
Those in support include Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford & Co., Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management LLC and Ron Baron, who runs Baron Funds.
Baron, a longtime Tesla investor, said in an open letter backing Musk’s package that the will of the shareholders who voted in 2018 should be favored. Without Musk, there would “be no Tesla,” and this vote might determine whether he stays at the company, he said.
Those against include Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank, and California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm has been engaging with large institutional investors and Tesla has posted several ads on X, which Musk owns.
In the final days of the campaign, several Tesla engineers and current and former executives posted on X in support of Musk’s leadership.
The deadline for investors to vote is 10:59 p.m. central time on June 12.
