James D. Rosener Quoted in Business Insider Article, 'A Deal to Take Tesla Private Probably Won't Come from Wall Street or Silicon Valley'
James D. Rosener, a partner in the Commercial Department of Pepper Hamilton, was quoted in the August 9, 2018 Business Insider article, " A Deal to Take Tesla Private Probably Won't Come from Wall Street or Silicon Valley."
Still, dedicating tens of billions of dollars toward a single investment would be unusual for any single bank or investment firm, James Rosener, a partner at the law firm Pepper Hamilton who specializes in private equity and corporate financing, told Business Insider.
That leaves two options: a group of firms or a nation's sovereign wealth fund.
Rosener said the latter is more likely, due in part to the fact that a deal would be difficult to finance through debt. Tesla, which has a history of burning cash quickly, wouldn't inspire enough confidence in potential creditors that it could handle the interest payments a large amount of new debt would require.
A sovereign wealth fund could have the financial resources to buy equity with cash, Rosener said. He suggested Saudi Arabia, which was recently reported to have purchased a [3-5 percent] stake in Tesla, could be a possible candidate.
"Could it be [Saudia Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman] putting tens of billions of dollars in? It's certainly manageable," Rosener said.
Another obvious candidate, China, is much less likely due to the country's reluctance toward inbound investment, according to Rosener.
Whether or not a deal goes through, Musk's approach to potentially taking Tesla private has been unconventional, like much else he does.
"It's certainly kind of a cavalier approach to a complex transaction. We'll see if it works out," Rosener said.