Shares of Tesla were down 5% in early trading on Monday after the results of a Twitter poll posted by CEO Elon Musk indicated the billionaire should sell 10% of his stake in the company.
The stock sale would amount to about $21 billion and would represent 2% of the outstanding shares in the company.
After putting up a poll asking whether or not he should sell shares due to potential incoming taxation rules around unrealized gains, Musk also wrote that he was “prepared to accept either outcome” of the poll.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support this?
— Lorde Edge (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
“Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock,” Musk wrote over the weekend.
More than 3.5 million votes were cast in the poll, with 57.9% voting to approve Musk’s sale of shares.
It was also reported Monday morning that Tesla sold 54,391 China-made vehicles in October and exported 40,666 units in the month, according to the China Passenger Car Association. 13,725 of these vehicles were sold by Tesla in China, the data showed.
It marked a -2.9% drop in Chinese-made vehicles, month over month.
Overall, China’s passenger vehicle sales were down 14.1% YOY to 1.74 million units. Despite the YOY drop on the tough comp from the Covid re-opening, sales were up 8.3% month to month.
Tesla shares are still up more than 70% for the year.
