{"id":243158,"date":"2025-11-04T11:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/243158\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:03:10","slug":"norways-oil-fund-to-vote-against-elon-musks-1tn-pay-deal-at-tesla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/243158\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s oil fund to vote against Elon Musk\u2019s $1tn pay deal at Tesla"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest sovereign wealth fund will vote against Tesla chief executive Elon Musk\u2019s $1tn pay package, saying it is worried about the size of the deal.<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s $2.1tn oil fund, which is a top-10 Tesla shareholder with a stake of 1.1 per cent, said on Tuesday that while it appreciated \u201cthe significant value created under Mr Musk\u2019s visionary role\u201d it would vote against his performance award.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk \u2014 consistent with our views on executive compensation,\u201d it said two days before the electric-car maker\u2019s annual meeting on November 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to seek constructive dialogue with Tesla on this and other topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm has characterised the vote as essential<\/a> to keeping Musk as the carmaker\u2019s chief executive. Musk has publicly threatened to walk away if shareholders again block his pay package.<\/p>\n

The oil fund last year voted against<\/a> Musk receiving what was then the biggest remuneration package in US corporate history of $56bn.<\/p>\n

That pay deal was approved by shareholders in June but rejected for a second time by a Delaware court in December.<\/p>\n

Two shareholder advisory groups, Glass Lewis and ISS, have recommended that investors reject<\/a> the latest $1tn pay deal, which is tied to ambitious milestones for share price and operational performance.<\/p>\n

A group of big pension funds has also issued an open letter opposing the pay plan, arguing that the board\u2019s \u201crelentless pursuit\u201d of keeping its chief executive had damaged Tesla\u2019s reputation and led to excessive pay.<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s oil fund<\/a> has felt Musk\u2019s wrath over pay before. Nicolai Tangen, the fund\u2019s chief executive, invited Musk and other chief executives to dinner in Oslo earlier this year, but Musk turned the invite down after the oil fund voted against the $56bn pay deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ask you for a favour which I very rarely do, and you decline, then you should not ask me for one until you\u2019ve done something above nothing to make amends. Friends are as friends do,\u201d Musk told Tangen<\/a> in October 2024 in a text message revealed by the fund under a freedom of information request.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian fund usually reveals its voting intentions five days before annual meetings.\u00a0But it released its vote for Tesla only two days in advance, saying it wanted \u201cto ensure all relevant information is available and able to be considered in our analysis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Musk<\/a> talked about the criticism of the pay deal on X, the social media site he owns, last month. \u201cTesla is worth more than all other automotive companies combined. Which of those CEOs would you like to run Tesla? It won\u2019t be me,\u201d he wrote. He separately called ISS and Glass Lewis \u201ccorporate terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fortune of the world\u2019s richest man is largely locked up in Tesla shares, which have more than tripled in value over the past five years as its market capitalisation has soared to $1.5tn.<\/p>\n

Denholm told the Financial Times last month that if Tesla could not retain Musk \u201cit wouldn\u2019t be a good outcome for shareholders\u201d but added that she did not believe he would do anything \u201csudden and detrimental\u201d if Tesla lost the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-243158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}