Investing.com-- Wall Street banks are close to selling $3 billion worth of debt backing Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, as the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO’s proximity to President Donald Trump attracted investor interest.
The $3 billion sale would come just a week after bankers led by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) offloaded $5.5 billion worth of debt tied to the Twitter deal. Bankers had been holding on to the debt since at least 2022, amid some initial doubts over the deal, the FT report said, citing people briefed on the matter.
A group of seven lenders- including Bank of America, Barclays (LON:BARC), Mizuho (NYSE:MFG), MUFG, Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY), and BNP Paribas- had put up about $13 billion to back Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which the billionaire rebranded to “X.”
Increased interest in Twitter debt comes especially after the U.S. elections, with Musk seen holding increasing influence in the Trump administration. Musk has also publicly claimed that X’s revenues are expected to improve in the coming years, as advertisers return to the platform.
Musk’s takeover of the social media platform was initially met with skepticism, after he fired a bulk of its staff, including moderation teams. This had seen advertisers pull out of the site en-masse, amid concerns over their ads being presented next to hate speech.