By Shankar Ramakrishnan
(Reuters) -Apple on Monday announced a four-tranche bond offering, its first in two years, with proceeds expected to be used to repurchase stock, repay outstanding debt among other purposes, according to its SEC filing.
The size of the bond offering was not stated at launch but CreditSights analysts expect it to raise nearly $5 billion to $6 billion. The analysts said Apple has $8 billion in upcoming debt maturities from May through November.
Besides Apple, there were eight other issuers in the investment-grade primary market to kick off a week that is expected to see nearly $35 billion of bond issuance.
The rise in new bond supply has come amidst a rebound in credit spreads, or the premium companies pay over Treasuries, in the weeks since President Donald Trump first announced harsh tariffs and then provided temporary relief.
The average investment-grade bond spread was at 106 basis points last Friday, the latest data, or three basis points inside levels touched last Thursday.
(Reporting by Shankar Ramakrishnan; Editing by David Gregorio)