Tesla is in a bubble and is ‘going down,’ the fund’s chief manager says

Shares of electric car maker Tesla are set to see a sharp fall as interest rates rise after a coronavirus crisis, Lansdowne Partners fund manager Per Lekander told CNBC.

Lekander told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that he believes Tesla is in a bubble and close to Elon Musk’s company, meaning it will make a profit if the value of Tesla’s stock falls.

Tesla ‘s market value rose to more than $ 800 billion in the 12 months to January, before falling to less than $ 600 billion in February. It is now at around $ 679 billion.

“My opinion is that this year is going to be a return for the newcomers,” said Lekander, calling out German carmaker Volkswagen, valued. at 119 billion euros ($ 141 billion), as one company on which it is particularly bullish.

“There are a few gold nuggets, which I think are going to be long-term winners. But in the short term, I think if I’m right on the macro call there will be flat rates going up and down. market wakes up to (the fact that not) the owners are in as bad a position as they think, then yes, I think Tesla is going down. “

Some other market watchers are unlikely to agree with that forecast. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, for example, believes Tesla shares will recover after a volatile start to the year.

“Tesla’s success is ramping up its EV (electric vehicle) rivals and demand in China for the month of March will capture higher shares after a turbulent January and a strong month in February,” Ives said in a note on Monday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Lekander drew comparisons with the 1999 dot-com increase.

“If you think about the viewers who spoke on the internet in 1999, if you listen to them now, they’re really disparaging what happened,” he said. The development was even more radical than what had happened. “

He said Cisco has a much higher market value – perhaps a poster child for that period than it did in 2000. “That didn’t stop it from going down 80% at first,” he said. .

Nokia may be the only one in Europe, Lekander said, noting that it has gone down 80% as well.

“I think that’s what we’re going to see here in this tech spec hype,” he said.

Last month, Tesla revealed it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Research firm Tech Wedbush estimates that the company has already made a return of $ 1.2 billion on their investment.

Tesla officially gave CEO Musk the title “Technoking of Tesla” in a new regulatory filing Monday.

Musk will retain his position as chief executive, Tesla said. Zach Kirkhorn, the company’s chief financial officer, was given a new title: “Master of Coin.”

“We believe this is an advertisement at Musk looking at Tesla more as a future technology disaster especially with robotaxis, FSD (full self-driving), and major battery technology advances on the horizon at Tesla,” said Ives.