Business

Apple’s iBonds rack up $17B

Apple’s hottest offering of late had nothing to do with a gadget.

The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant raised a whopping $17 billion yesterday by shopping what some Street investors are referring to as iBonds.

Apple’s first debt offering in nearly 20 years rang up record demand for the series of short- and long-term bonds that the company sold as a part of a longer-term plan to return a hefty $100 billion to investors over the next 30 months.

Until recently, Apple has been a tightwad with its $145 billion cash hoard.

But in recent months, CEO Tim Cook has agreed to counter a slide in Apple shares with the return of some cash to patient shareholders.

And just like sales of its popular gizmos, Apple’s bonds sold like, well, iPads, drawing interest equal to roughly three times the offered amount of debt.

That heady appetite comes despite the fact that one of the richest companies in the world, with a $415 billion market capitalization — larger than that of triple-A rated ExxonMobil — received a less than stellar AA+ rating from by Standard & Poor’s.

Apple is taking advantage of dirt-cheap rates for high-quality corporate debt in kicking off its first debt offering since the mid 1990s.

The iPhone maker is paying about a 2.8 percent interest rate on average for the $14 billion in fixed-rate debt it sold — ranging in maturities from three years to 30 years.

According to a global corporate index from Bank of America, average yields on investment-grade debt is at a record-low of 2.45 percent.

The remaining $3 billion in debt will carry a floating rate.

Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank led the bond offering.