A group of Morgan Stanley-led banks sold $5.5 billion of debt tied to Elon Musk’s social-media platform X after receiving stronger-than-expected demand from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays offered a deal to investors seeking minimum commitments in the hundreds of millions.

Banks led by Morgan Stanley have sold $5.5 billion of some $13 billion of debt they lent to support Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now called X, in 2022, said a source with knowledge of the deal.

Banks wrapped up the sale of $5.5 billion in debt backed by Musk’s social-media company on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said. The banks had originally planned to sell around $3 billion at around 95 cents on the dollar,

The Wall Street firms got stuck with US$13 billion of debt that Musk heaped on X during his surprise bid to take it private in 2022. While banks typically try to resell debt they commit to fund an acquisition quickly, investors balked in this case after Musk upended X’s business, laid off staff and sparked a steep revenue decline.

The banks initially planned to sell about $3 billion worth of the loan but received enough interest to parcel out additional debt