A group of banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays and Mitsubishi UFJ sold the final piece of debt tied to billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout of social media platform Twitter, now called X, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Loans worth $1.2 billion have been sold at 98 cents on the dollar, paying a yield of 9.5 per cent, the source added.
Musk’s close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and prospects of X’s improving revenue have allowed banks to offload almost all of the $13 billion they had been holding on their books for nearly two years.
The acquisition was funded by a $6.5 billion secured term loan, a $500 million revolving credit facility, a $3 billion unsecured loan and $3 billion of secured loans. Morgan Stanley and six other lenders participated in Musk’s buyout, lending him a total of $13 billion.
Reuters had reported earlier this month that Morgan Stanley was offering the last piece of its $1.23 billion of debt related to X in the form of a fixed-rate loan at an interest of 9.5 per cent and a discounted price of 97.5 cents to 98 cents on the dollar.
Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Mitsubishi UFJ and X did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Bank of America declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the development earlier in the day. Last month, Musk said his AI company, xAI, had acquired X in a deal that valued the social media platform at $33 billion.
