(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley and six other banks sold $4.74 billion of X Holdings Corp. debt, allowing the lenders to finally rid themselves of the bulk of their exposure to the financing they arranged for Elon Musk’s 2022 purchase of the social-media platform.
The Wall Street bank had been marketing a $3 billion portion but decided to increase the offering after meeting with strong appetite from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Demand was such that buyers paid face value for the 9.5% debt due 2029, the people said.
The latest transaction is the third sale of X debt in the span of less than a month, a frenetic period that marks an extraordinary turn of fortune for banks that had been stuck with $13 billion of debt from Musk’s controversial $44 billion buyout of the platform formerly known as Twitter. The billionaire’s relationship with President Donald Trump, X’s improved finances and its stake in artificial intelligence project xAI all combined to help win over investors who had spurned banks’ attempts to offload the borrowings for more than two years.
The first sale — a $1 billion loan that served as a test of the market — priced in a range of 90-to-95 cents on the dollar. That was quickly followed by a sale of $5.5 billion in debt for 97 cents on the dollar. After Thursday’s offering, banks are now holding a mere $1.3 billion in remaining X debt to be sold.
Banks typically sell debt into the market immediately after financing a buyout, but investors balked at the idea in this case, concerned about the price Musk had paid and that his changes to content-moderation policies would drive away advertisers. At one point, the market valued the debt at just 60 cents on the dollar.
More recently, investors have taken comfort in signs that X’s revenue from subscriptions and advertising is growing. For instance, its adjusted revenue spiked to $312 million in December, up 40% from a year earlier and up 21% from the prior month, some of the people said. Those newly shared monthly figures back up material Morgan Stanley had touted in prior marketing efforts, which also included the company’s stake in xAI.
A representative for Morgan Stanley declined to comment, while a representative for X didn’t respond to a request seeking comment.
Musk’s close ties to Trump, including an advisory role, has also swiftly changed perceptions about X’s prospects. Investors expect the billionaire’s position to help his business interests, even as his aggressive government cost-cutting efforts have sown upheaval in Washington.
--With assistance from Aaron Weinman, Sridhar Natarajan and Reshmi Basu.
(Updates with final pricing details)
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
