
Apple borrows $8.5B, joins record corporate debt borrowing spree - spking
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-pulls-in-pricing-joins-record-corporate-debt-borrowing-spree-2020-05-04
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canada_dry
> $190 billion cash hoard

Can someone explain why are they accessing the bond market when they have one
of the largest cash reserves in American corporate history?

Is it simply because it's so cheap - just 60 points above gov't bonds?

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mikeyouse
It’s very likely a tax arbitrage.. much of their profit is overseas and
repatriating it would cost money (even under the lowered rates from Trump tax
cuts). So they can take out loans in the US and payout dividends or repurchase
shares to give money to shareholders today while deferring taxes further to
the future or wait for another repatriation holiday.

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ashtonkem
Even more perversely, they can use those foreign profits as a guarantee on
their loans, reducing the interest rate they have to pay. Best case they pay a
super low bond rate, worst case they repatriate their profits to repay debts
and pay some taxes.

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erentz
Capitalism has become so distorted by worldwide zero and negative interest
rate policies. We have 30 million newly unemployed, predicted to rise to 34%
unemployed in Q2, the stock market is about 2% away from its start this year.
And here this company that bought back a whopping 1/3rd of its stock over the
past 6 years, that still has $190 billion cash on hand is _still_ issuing
debt.

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linuxftw
The Fed promised to monetize corporate bonds this time around, so you'd be
stupid not to issue debt right now. Something tells me this plan is
unsustainable.

