X debt sale signals growing investor confidence

LONDON

Banks that helped Elon Musk finance his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, have successfully sold a chunk of their acquisition debt in the company, indicating surging investor confidence amid the Tesla tycoon's outsize role in the Trump administration.

According to U.S. media, banks this week sold $4.7 billion of X's acquisition debt at face value, exceeding their initial $3 billion target.

This was the third sale in recent weeks from the banks that had been stuck with $13 billion of debt from Musk's controversial buyout.

A week ago, the Financial Times said a sale led by Morgan Stanley unloaded a total of $5.5 billion at a small discount of 97 cents on the dollar.

The sales followed reports from just months ago that lenders were struggling to offload the debt amid concerns that Musk's stewardship of the platform - and shifting it politically to the right - was a money-loser.

The company told investors, according to the New York Times, that its revenue, mainly from advertising but also including subscriptions, jumped 21 percent in December from the month before.

The company reportedly saw a 40 percent revenue increase last year from the year before, bolstered by premium subscriptions and data licensing deals with Musk's AI venture, xAI.

According to the Times, major advertisers including Amazon and Apple have returned to the platform after previously departing over the site's lack of content moderation.