South Korea’s Mirae Asset Financial Group is planning to commit about $208 million (roughly Rs. 1,721 crore) to help finance Elon Musk’s $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) buyout of Twitter, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The deal with Mirae is expected to be finalised in the coming days before the deadline for the closing of the Twitter deal on October 28, the source added.

Mirae Asset earlier this year invested in Musk’s rocket and satellite company SpaceX, the person said.

Musk’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Mirae Asset declined to comment.

The Korea Economic Daily earlier reported Mirae Asset’s investment plan for Twitter.

“Mirae Asset is creating a KRW 300 billion (roughly Rs. 1,731 crore) fund to support Musk’s takeover of Twitter, according the to investment banking industry. The structure (of the fund) is to jointly acquire a stake in Twitter with Musk,” the newspaper reported

Analysts say Musk needs to attract more equity investors to finance the Twitter purchase and avoid further sales of his stock in electric car maker Tesla.

Earlier this month, a Delaware judge gave Musk until October 28 to close his takeover of the social media platform.

Tesla investors have feared the billionaire might sell more Tesla stock to finance the deal, weighing on its shares.

Meanwhile, the banks providing $13 billion (roughly Rs. 1,07,300 crore) in financing for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter have abandoned plans to sell the debt to investors because of uncertainty around the social media company’s fortunes and losses, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The banks are not planning to syndicate the debt as is typical with such acquisitions, and are instead planning to keep it on their balance sheets until there is more investor appetite, the sources said.

© Thomson Reuters 2022