Apple financial engineering is nothing to sniff at: with nearly $200 billion in cash, they have a lot of flexibility to initiate capital trades. Following a major seven-part domestic bond sale in the US, Nikkei reports it is now looking to do something similar in Japan.
Apple is interested in Japan due to comparatively lower interest rates than the US so it can sell debt more cheaply there than it could elsewhere. The report notes Apple is looking at a bond sale of about $200 billion in yen, which is equivalent to over $1.6 billion dollars. Apple should be able to demand 1% lower interest rates in Japan than in America. Although this is a thin difference in margin, everything adds up with balances as large as Apple’s.
Like with previous instances, Apple uses the debt market to avoid costly taxation on repatriation of its overseas assets. The income will go towards funding development in Japan as well as help investor returns. Apple continues to exploit its stellar credit rating — second only to governments — around the world, recently diversifying into many euro countries as well as domestically.
