Musk can take home $56-bn pay package

San Francisco: Tesla stockholders have overwhelmingly approved the $56 billion pay package (now valued at $44.9 billion) for the company’s CEO Elon Musk, along with reincorporating the electric vehicle company in the US state of Texas, moving it from Delaware.

The Tesla board won approval for Musk’s 2018 pay package with 73 per cent of the vote, according to the company.

The company last valued Musk’s package at $44.9 billion (in April) as Tesla’s stock has nosedived by nearly 25 per cent this year.

“Tesla stockholders overwhelmingly approved the ratification of the 2018 CEO Performance Award and the re-domestication of the company to Texas,” the electric car maker said in a statement.

The stockholders gave their consent to a Tesla proposal to ratify the 100 per cent performance-based stock option award to Musk that was approved by the stockholders in 2018.

At Tesla’s meeting late on Thursday, the tech billionaire reassured shareholders that he will not leave the company as he can’t sell any stock for five years.

“It’s not actually cash, and I can’t cut and run, nor would I want to,” he told the stockholders.