In a tug-of-war over approval of a $56 billion (51.6 billion euros) pay package for Tesla boss Elon Musk, one of its biggest investors is announcing opposition, according to media reports. “We don’t believe that’s consistent with the company’s performance,” Marcy Frost, president of CalPERS, the California civil service pension fund, said on CNBC on Wednesday.
Kalbers is one of the electric car maker’s 30 largest investors and owns 9.5 million shares, according to LSEG. In a reaction on social media platform X, Musk explained that the US pension fund is not complying with the agreements. “It doesn’t make sense for her to say that all the contractual milestones have been met. CalPERS is breaking its word.” The American pension fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Tesla shares are worth nearly six times that
Musk’s compensation package is the largest ever in corporate America and includes no cash salary or bonus. It grants Musk stock options based on meeting a set of financial growth targets for the automaker set for 2018. Since the start of 2018, Tesla shares have increased nearly sixfold in value.
Tesla wants to let its shareholders vote again on the compensation package after it was overturned by a Delaware judge earlier this year. The decision is scheduled to be announced at the company’s annual general meeting on June 13 and is seen as a vote on Musk’s leadership skills.
