Much ado about nothing: Tesla

Tesla Motors was in Korea this week for its first investor relations in the country.

To cut a long story short, the press and investors seemed to have made a big fuss over nothing.

“The Tesla executives seemed to have nothing to say to us. We even asked if there was anything they needed to discuss with us but the answer was no,” an official at the National Pension Fund told The Korea Herald.

NPS is a major institutional investor that is investing up to 80 trillion won in the local stock market. It is the largest shareholder in conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics and POSCO.

Tesla executives including IR vice president Jeffrey Evanson visited the fund headquarters in Songpa district before embarking on the investor relations session.

Apparently, the executives merely asked the fund to take interest in the event, without elaborating on exactly why they were visiting.

Making matters worse, on the day of the IR session, a report showed that investors filed a class action suit against Tesla, accusing it of making misleading statements regarding the safety of the Model S that recently caught fire following collisions.

Industry watchers believe Tesla had originally started with a cause for the visit: To recruit viable investors.

“But the company probably had to abandon the plan because it already knew it was facing a lawsuit,” said Shin Jung-gwan, an analyst with KB Securities.

Entering the country with a sales store was second on the company’s list of priorities, followed by pending supply contracts with battery supplies such as Samsung SDI and LG Chem.

“The deal will come about, but the amount will be less than significant,” said one industry watcher, declining to be identified.

Tesla confirmed that while it may take some time, the two were definitely on its list of potential suppliers.

The comments came after Tesla signed a deal with Panasonic to expand on an earlier 2011 contract so that the Japanese battery maker would be supplying nearly 2 billion cells over the course of four years to power sedans like the Model S and the upcoming Model X.

By Kim Ji-hyun
(jemmie@heraldcorp.com)