Apple has launched a corporate bond sale in Australia managed by Goldman Sachs, Commonwealth Bank, and Deutsche Bank, marking its first such sale in Australian dollars. Launched as a “benchmark-sized” sale, one which would usually involve raising somewhere between AU$500 million and AU$1 billion ($365 million and $730 million) , the orders for this particular sale reached AU$1.2 billion ($877 million) within just two hours of being available to purchase.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, fixed-income investors were advised of the Apple bond sale early this morning, with four-year and seven-year bonds available to purchase. Pricing guidance advised the four-year bonds would be available in fixed and floating formats at around 3 percent, or 0.7 percentage points over the bank rate. The seven-year bond is set at 3.9 percent, or 1.15 percentage points over the bank swap rate.
The Australian bond sale comes after similar sales in the United Kingdom and Japan over the last two months. For both sales, Apple managed to raise approximately $2 billion in the local currencies. Since May 2013, Apple has so far raised $50 billion in debt, with the majority of funds being in offshore jurisdictions. The borrowed money is being used to return funds to shareholders, a cheaper process for the company since it avoids paying a hefty US tax bill.
