Image: @KoguanLeo
Leo KoGuan, Tesla’s third-largest retail shareholder who claims to have invested more than $3 billion USD in the electric vehicle (EV) company, has turned against CEO Elon Musk and is urging the board of directors to limit the eccentric entrepreneur’s influence (via TheStreet).
KoGuan’s outlook towards Musk soured in recent weeks as Tesla has taken a beating at the stock market. “I am 100% in Tesla bc I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla,” KoGuan said in a January 7 tweet. “But he is killing SH and Tesla. If I knew I wouldn’t invest in Tesla.
Tesla lost more than 65% of its market capitalization in 2022. The automaker started the year strong with a valuation of over $1 trillion, but currently sits at less than $355 billion.
While Musk maintains that macroeconomic factors such as surging interest rates and inflation are to blame for wiping over $600 billion of Tesla’s market value, his October 2022 takeover of Twitter has given rise to a narrative among shareholders that he is neglecting Tesla to focus his efforts on the social media company.
“We want Elon back to Tesla, but has new seductive beauty named Twitter. Twitter is giving him ‘dear leader’ power that he craves to decide who wins, loses and dies,” blasted KoGuan on Sunday.
KoGuan specifically takes issue with Musk selling off a large chunk of his stake in Tesla to fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. “Elon invested ≈$200mm but took out $40B, Larry invested $1B, I invested over $3B, I have no choice but to act and speak out,” the outraged investor said.
KoGuan is now rallying like-minded shareholders against Musk. He believes Tesla’s board of directors must now limit Musk’s powers at the company. “Desperate situation requires desperate move,” he said. “We are hopeless. Doing nothing is not an option!”
KoGuan on Sunday repeated an earlier call for action. “I contacted the board and the one for about 1 year, what I got was nothing or at best only empty promises. Actually, from these interactions I found out Tesla is one man show company but it is no longer a family business. It is a public company with more than 100,000 employees,” he said. “The One” refers to Musk.
Even so, KoGuan’s faith in Tesla and its mission hasn’t wavered. In fact, the investor has promised to exponentially increase his shareholding in the company in the coming years.
“Here is my promise unless the great Captain Larry Ellison buys more Tesla shares, I plan to have about 50 million shares to become the 2nd largest individual shareholder of Tesla by 2026,” he said.
KoGuan’s opposition of Musk’s leadership reaches a boiling point as Tesla prepares to report its financial results for the the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022, later this month. Earlier this week, Tesla reported record deliveries of 405,278 vehicles for Q4 2022, along with an all-time high of 1,313,851 million deliveries for the year as a whole.
Tesla also has its annual Investor Day set for March 1, 2023.
