Apple filed a prospectus on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, reportedly hoping to sell $5 billion worth of new debt.
Managed by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, the offer’s monetary specifics haven’t yet been revealed by Apple, but the company says the money will be used to cover “general corporate purposes, including repurchases of our common stock and payment of dividends under our program to return capital to shareholders, funding for working capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions and repayment of debt.”
Bloomberg‘s Lisa Abramowicz says, much of the proceeds the company receives from the bond sale will go to buybacks and dividend payments.
Except for rewarding shareholders, of course. Proceeds to go to buybacks & dividend payments
— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) February 2, 2015
Apple’s most recent bond sale took place in November, where Apple issued the bond in euros. Apple was seeking to raise €2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) for “general corporate purposes,” again primarily for share buybacks and dividend payments.
Last week saw Apple reporting record-breaking earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2015, with revenue of $74.6 billion for the quarter.
While Apple is sitting n a $178 billion pile of cash and marketable securities, much of that horde sits outside of the United States, making it subject to significant taxes if repatriated to the U.S. Thus, it’s cheaper for Apple to pursue bond sales for purposes of bond buybacks and dividends than it is to bring the money back stateside.
