Elon Musk has begun reaching out to potential financing partners in Wall Street as he seeks to raise money for his $43 billion bid to buy Twitter Inc.
musk And his advisers have held talks about debt financing with several potential partners, according to a person familiar with the matter. The possibility of raising equity to back the offer is yet to be discussed with other firms, the person who asked not to be identified in details, said private.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the world’s richest person with a net worth of about $261 billion, but the majority of that wealth is tied up in the stock of Tesla Inc., the electric-car company he co-founded. They have a number of options available to bid, some of which include selling the shares, taking out a loan against them, raising debt financing or bringing in an investment partner.
Wall Street’s biggest banks and shopping malls are divided over whether they will step in to help Musk.
Among the parties that will certainly help with the bidding is bank Morgan Stanley, which is advising Musk on his unsolicited offer. A separate person familiar with the matter said this week that Apollo Global Management Inc. is also interested in helping finance a potential acquisition. Meanwhile, private equity firms including Blackstone Inc., Brookfield Asset Management and Vista Equity Partners have declined to be involved, people familiar with their thinking said.
The New York Post and The New York Times previously reported on some aspects of the financing plans.
In addition to collecting financing, Musk still has to win over the company’s board in order to be successful with a bid. Although Twitter has yet to reject his offer, the company has launched a poison pill defense to thwart Musk’s bid to take it private at $54.20 a share.
Shares of Twitter were trading below the offer, up 0.5% on Wednesday at $46.34.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.