Tesla Inc.
TSLA -1.47%
countersued
JPMorgan Chase
JPM -0.09%
& Co. on Monday, intensifying a dispute over the payout for a bond sale the financial institution helped organize in 2014.
JPMorgan began the battle with a lawsuit in November, claiming it was owed round $162 million extra for a set of warrants it had acquired as a part of the bond sale. Tesla on Monday mentioned the financial institution wasn’t entitled to the billions of {dollars} in inventory it received final 12 months from these warrants.
The dispute is lifting the curtain on a testy relationship between the nation’s largest financial institution and the world’s most useful auto maker. JPMorgan has been spurned by Tesla on enterprise dealings and executives on the corporations have clashed, together with chief executives
Jamie Dimon
and
Elon Musk,
The Wall Road Journal has reported.
Tesla claimed that the feud is what is absolutely behind JPMorgan’s go well with. It alleged the financial institution’s actions amounted to “unhealthy religion and avarice.”
“JPM pressed its exorbitant demand as an act of retaliation in opposition to Tesla each for it having handed over JPM in main enterprise offers and out of senior JPM executives’ animus towards Mr. Musk,” Tesla alleged.
Mr. Musk mentioned he would write a one-star assessment on
Yelp
if the financial institution didn’t withdraw the go well with.
JPMorgan mentioned Monday that “there isn’t any advantage to their declare. This comes all the way down to fulfilling contractual obligations.”
The dispute facilities on one among Mr. Musk’s extra turbulent episodes, when he toyed with taking Tesla personal in 2018. He was later compelled to relinquish his title as chairman in a settlement with the Securities and Change Fee over his tweets about it.
In 2014, JPMorgan acquired warrants from Tesla as a part of a convertible bond sale it labored on for the auto maker with different banks. The warrants allowed the banks to amass inventory in Tesla at a set worth after they expired in June and July 2021.
JPMorgan has claimed Mr. Musk affected the worth of the warrants when he tweeted in 2018 he had the funding to take Tesla personal. The financial institution used his tweets as justification to decrease the strike worth of the warrants, permitting it to get extra revenue if Tesla’s inventory stored rising.
Final summer season, Tesla paid up primarily based on the unique worth however refused to just accept JPMorgan’s change. The financial institution received what amounted to billions of {dollars} in inventory, Tesla mentioned Monday.
Tesla on Monday mentioned JPMorgan had no proper to make the change and demand extra money, partially as a result of it mentioned the financial institution didn’t actually imagine Mr. Musk would take Tesla personal. It mentioned Mr. Musk’s tweets didn’t affect the worth and that not one of the different banks made the change.
Tesla mentioned the financial institution broke the contract and as an alternative ought to have canceled the warrants and returned them. The go well with is looking for unspecified damages and charges from the financial institution.
Write to David Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com
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Appeared within the January 25, 2022, print version as ‘Tesla Countersues JPMorgan in Struggle Over Warrant Worth.’
