X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, looks like a pretty bad investment right about now.
As readers might recall, billionaire Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and five other major banks to help finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, as it was then called. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal has turned into the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, resulting in write-downs and — in at least one case — crimped compensation.
When banks lend money for takeovers like this, they usually sell that debt on to others to handle, earning fees on the transaction. But that hasn’t been possible with X. As a result of the company’s weak financials, the loans have weighed on the banks for much longer than other, similar business loans, becoming in industry parlance “hung deals.”
Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reports that the banks agreed to underwrite their loans “largely because the allure of banking the world’s richest person was too attractive to pass up.” Now, it looks like a costly mistake — unless the banks are able to extract interest payments from X and a repayment of principals once the loans mature.