Wall Street banks saddled with debt from Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover of Twitter sold large chunks of the loan package to investors on Wednesday, allowing a number of lenders to exit one of the toughest acquisition financings in recent years.
The banks were able to sell $5.5bn of term loans, following a sale of roughly $1bn of the same debt last month, helped by booming investor interest in the assets, according to people briefed on the matter. The debt sold on Wednesday was offloaded with just a small discount, selling at 97 cents on the dollar.
The transaction was a pivotal moment for the banks, which had to fund Musk’s 2022 takeover themselves after his ownership of the business, now renamed X, and broader market volatility damped enthusiasm for the debt.