Tesla’s Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that he would pay SolarCity’s debt if it came to that. It was in response to a tweet from David Tayar asking about Tesla assuming SolarCity’s obligations after the presentation on the SolarCity acquisition on November 1. There are major concerns about the merger due to SolarCity’s negative (and increasing) cash flows and therefore its ability to service its debt (and then becoming an obligation to Tesla).
This is compounded by the concern that Tesla may not be legally obligated to pay for the debt (even though Musk says they will be one company) since there is language in at least one of Tesla’s filings with the SEC that “the Company and its Subsidiaries shall not guarantee or otherwise become directly liable for any Indebtedness of SolarCity and (b) the Company and its Subsidiaries shall not permit SolarCity to guarantee or otherwise become directly liable for the Indebtedness of the Company or its Subsidiaries.” This is from an 8-K filing on August 1 and you have to go to the EX-10.1 portion to find it.
