Energy

George Soros Bails Out Musk With $305 Mil SolarCity Investment

REUTERS/Pascal Lauener

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Solar panel producer SolarCity managed to raise $305 million thanks to a massive investment from an equity fund affiliated with billionaire liberal George Soros.

A private investment fund tied to Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd provided the company the bulk of the investment. Soros Fund Management LLC advised the fund.

The deal also includes an 18-year-loan with several other investment groups, the company said Monday in a press release.

Both the loan and the cash infusion came as technology entrepreneur Elon Musk attempts to merge SolarCity and electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors. Musk is the chairman of both companies and owns nearly 20 percent of each company.

Soros’s generous investment also comes on the heels of a massive cash infusion by Tesla.

Tesla disclosed in a Sept. 1 filing that it must pay nearly half a billion dollars ($422 million) to its bondholders in the third quarter — the filing also admitted that it must raise even more money by the end of the year. The purpose for the capital infusion is to prop up the merger.

SolarCity’s on-hand cash has tumbled from $421 million in 2015 to $146 million on June 30, the company revealed.

The company’s hard times have wreaked havoc on Musk’s pocket book.

The Tesla chairman’s wealth tumbled by $779 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, due in part to drops in Tesla Motors and SolarCity stock prices, and the Sept. 1 filing showed he has ponied up $489 million of his Tesla and SolarCity fusion.

The Soros investment should not come as a surprise as the well-heeled Democratic activist has pushed environmental concerns in the past.

Soros, who is the 29th wealthiest person in the world, pledged to spend $1 billion of his own money in 2009 to back green energy initiatives. He also placed troves of money behind the liberal Climate Policy Initiative think tank, according to The Guardian.

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