Twitter is, according to the Wall Street Journal, looking to raise $3 billion in equity to pay back $3 billion of the most expensive loans Elon Musk took to fund his acquisition of Twitter. This out of $13 billion in total debt.
Given Twitters size in revenue (reportedly $4-4.5 billion) and (lack of) profitability, $13 billion is a high debt load.
If Twitter was a stable company (revenue, profitability and cash flow), maybe it could have a 5x debt-to-cashflow ratio (which would be on the aggressive side). As the company is losing money, that ratio doesn’t make sense to look at today.
The question is at what valuation and what terms Twitter can raise money. The $44 billion dollar valuation from the acquisition is unlikely to stand given lower stock market valuation and Twitter’s short-term performance.
Still, I’d guess it is doable to raise capital using preference shares (or convertible debt) with favorable terms for the investors putting new money.
