Mirae Asset joins Musk's Twitter acquisition deal

Mirae Asset Financial Group headquarters in central Seoul / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Financial Group

By Anna J. Park

Mirae Asset Global Investments will invest 300 billion won ($209 million) in Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal.

According to local investment banking industry sources, Tuesday, the asset management arm of Mirae Asset Financial Group has set up a fund worth 300 billion won as part of its plans to participate in Musk's Twitter buyout. Mirae Asset Securities is investing 210 billion won, while the remaining 90 billion won will be provided by Mirae Asset Capital and Global Investments.

As Elon Musk has been ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court to close the acquisition deal by Friday 5 p.m. U.S. time, Mirae Asset is scheduled to send the money that day. Various U.S.-headquartered investment banks and major multinational financial institutions, including Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management, are joining the takeover deal as financial investors.

Mirae Asset is known to have been planning to join the acquisition deal as a financial investor since April. But the deal was delayed after the Tesla CEO reversed his position in July, saying that he was withdrawing his offer to buy the social media site. As Musk decided earlier this month to move forward with closing the deal, Mirae Asset's continued participation has also been confirmed.

It's not the first time that Mirae Asset has invested in the business of Musk, the richest man in the world. Mirae Asset injected $100 million in a funding round of SpaceX in July, becoming the first Korean financial company to invest in Musk's spacecraft and satellite company.

In April, Elon Musk offered to take over Twitter for $43 billion, after previously purchasing a 9.1 percent stake in the social media company, becoming its largest shareholder. Yet, in July, the Tesla CEO said he would terminate the deal due to a breach of the takeover agreement on the part of Twitter, as it refused to crack down on spambot accounts. Later that month, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery, urging him to follow through with the buyout deal. In early October, Musk announced that he would move forward with his acquisition of the social media company. If the deal is not closed by Oct. 28, Musk will face trial in November.