Monday, May 6, 2019

More on Tesla Bonds

Here's a link to a good article on TSLA bonds: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4244261-tesla-netflix-bonds-likely-smarter-bet-shares This will be a paywall for some of you. The article is about the capital structure of high yield companies: basically junk bonds do better than junk equity. I believe that this is widely studied and agreed with by academics.

The latest TSLA refinancing round went well, but I do not believe that is the end. Tesla has two problems:
1. Subsidies for electric cars have/are ending in several important markets.
2. Tesla's European competitors are launching similar products. They are doing this without a need for profitability. Germany is much like China. If the elite want something done, it gets done without regard to economics. Look at what happened to their electricity prices after they decided to invest in wind. This is bad for Mercedes/BMW/VW stockholders, but they don't count for much.

So the bonds are risky. I still believe that Tesla has technology worth the value of the bonds. The 8/25 bonds have rallied a point or so. I took a small position, and am going to watch for a place to add more.

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