Apple is readying a bond sale for U.S. debt capital markets, its third such sale this year. the Financial Times indicates the company plans to use the bond sale to finance its stock buyback program.
According to the Financial Times, the sale is three-times over subscribed, and will happen in five parts. The joint book running managers for this bond sale are likely again Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, and J.P. Morgan, the same managers as the last two U.S. sales.
Apple’s U.S. $12 billion bond offering in February included a $1.5 billion “Green Bond” issue to finance the company’s clean energy projects. A Taiwan bond sale in June brought in $1.38 billion in 30-year bonds, almost double what was expected.
Apple has said it plans on spending $58 billion over the next two years to buy back its own stock. The company announced in April that its capital return program has returned more than $163 billion, ($117 billion in stock repurchases), to investors since its August 2012 start.
Apple uses the bond sales for such projects as the green energy project, and the stock buybacks in order to avoid repatriating any of its overseas cash pile, which would lead to a high tax bill here in the states.
