Tesla tells bankers it doesn’t need financing in near future: Report

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Joe Skipper/Reuters

• Bankers are coming to Tesla with financing ideas as debt payments loom, but Tesla officials have indicated that the automaker does not feel the pressure to seek new financing, the Fox Business Network reporter Charles Gasparino reported Tuesday.
• Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• The automaker has over $1 billion in debt that will come due between November and March.

Bankers are coming to Tesla with financing ideas as debt payments loom, but Tesla officials have indicated that the automaker does not feel the pressure to seek new financing, the Fox Business Network reporter Charles Gasparino reported Tuesday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The automaker has three debt payments that will come due between November and March: a $230 million convertible bond with a conversion price of $560.64 that is due in November, a $157 million non-recourse loan that is due in December, and a $920 million convertible bond with a conversion price of $359.87 that is due in March.

Tesla’s finances have been an area of concern for the automaker throughout its 15-year history, as it has posted just two profitable quarters and zero profitable years. The automaker and its CEO, Elon Musk, have said it would be consistently profitable starting in the third quarter of this year (Tesla is expected to release its third-quarter earnings report in November), part of the reason why so much scrutiny has been placed on Tesla’s ability to hit self-imposed production goals that Musk has said are vital to earning steady profits.

During the second quarter, Tesla posted an adjusted loss per share of $3.06 (compared to an analyst forecast of -$2.90 per share) on $4 billion in revenue (compared to an analyst forecast of $3.97 billion). The automaker had a total of $2.2 billion in cash on hand at the end of the quarter.

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