Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
SolarCity's CEO is an ahistorical idot.
I mean we're all idots from time to time but most of us at least try to conceal our idot-hood from the freakin' media!
From Business Insider:
Lyndon Rive, the chief executive of renewables company SolarCity and cousin of billionaire serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, has never heard of hedge fund manager Jim Chanos until Friday.Earlier:
That's when Chanos — the short seller famous for his research on Enron and Tyco — revealed SolarCity is one of his new big short positions.
Chanos went on to compare the solar company to subprime housing.
"You basically lease the panels from SolarCity and they collect the lease payments. So in effect, if you put on the panels, you have a second mortgage on your home because you hope it's an asset, but in many cases, it turns into a liability," Chanos said.
Shares of SolarCity hit a 52-week low of $40.75 following Chanos' comments. The stock closed down $5.99, or -12.75%, to end the day at $40.99. Solar, as a sector, got clobbered Friday, and so did the rest of the stock market.
"First I've ever heard of the guy," Rive said in telephone call with Business Insider shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern Time Friday.
He added that Chanos is "intentionally misleading people [by] saying it's subprime."
Rive called Chanos' analogy "dramatically wrong," noting that the average FICO score for their customers is 740 and the lowest score is 650. Anything below 640 is considered subprime.
"[Chanos is] wrong. He knows this. Our FICO score is public when we do securitizations ... He's intentionally saying this to add more pressure to the stock so he can make money."
He later added that Chanos "just doesn't understand the business."...MORE
SolarCity Drops 10% Because... (SCTY)
On the other hand Chanos has been aware of Mr. Musk's empire since (I'm guessing) the 2010 TSLA IPO and at minimum since October 2013:
"Jim Chanos Hints He is Shorting Tesla Short (Sorta)" (TSLA)
