Tesla investment reaps $29bn profit for Edinburgh fund manager | Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | The Guardian
The Guardians usually anti Elon so this article makes a nice change.
Anderson, who first made the decision to invest in Tesla in 2013, said if the fund had not acted to sell some of Tesla shares, the stock would have accounted for more than a third of the whole fund. Tesla is still Scottish Mortgage’s largest holding at 8.9% of total assets.
Explaining why he first bought Tesla, at a time when many experienced investors thought it was hugely overvalued at $6 a share, Anderson said: “To us it was, frankly, clear even back half a dozen years that the underlying technologies from batteries, to solar to eventually self-driving were progressing and would continue to do so.
“We thought (and simply observed) that Tesla was already past the technological and practical challenges to a good degree and that execution and finance were the practical issues. What we needed was time. Not many investors can have that luxury and necessity.”
Anderson said he believes the electric car revolution could only have been started by a maverick outsider such as Musk, and said he deserves
the record-breaking $55.8bn bonus he is on track to collect.
“Let’s be clear that we thought this could only be done by a visionary from outside the traditional industry,” Anderson said. “We’re usually sceptics of management rewards but Elon deserves it. So, more recently, does his burgeoning team.