Apple intends to borrow money by issuing corporate bonds. It filed a partial prospectus for these today with the SEC. Though what it intends to spend the money on is a bit of a mystery.
The iPhone maker hasn’t needed to run up any debt since early 2018, when it brought home about $250 billion it had socked away overseas.
Since then, Apple has allowed earlier bonds to mature, and not issued an additional ones. That’s changing. Interest rates are very low right now, and Apple could borrow money at a relatively low cost.
Apple borrowing an unknown amount
The prospectus Apple filed is not complete, leaving out how many bonds it will issue and their value. This is literally true, with the document sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) starting with “We are offering $ of our % Notes due 2022.” It goes on to say that besides bonds that will mature in 2022, others will pay off in 2024, 2026, 2029 and 2049.
UPDATE: Apple wants to raise between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to an unconfirmed report in the Wall Street Journal.
What the company plans to do with the money raised is almost equally unknown. The prospectus says:
“We intend to use the net proceeds from sales of the notes, which we estimate will be approximately $ , after deducting underwriting discounts and our offering expenses, for 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, acquisitions and repayment of debt.”
That covers essentially anything Apple could spend money on.
