Apple readying third bond sale this year, $7 billion expected to fund stock buyback program

Apple is continuing to take advantage of low interest rates and bond sales to fund its giant stock buyback program. The Financial Times reports that Apple is preparing its third bond sale of the year to the tune of $7 billion:

Apple readied to sell $7bn worth of bonds on Thursday in its third tap of US debt capital markets this year, as the iPhone maker takes advantage of record low borrowing costs.

The five-part sale, across fixed and floating rate notes, was roughly three times over subscribed at $21bn, according to two people familiar with the deal.

Apple has already announced a $12 billion bond program in February as well as a $1 billion bond sale in Taiwan last month. Apple has previously done bonds in the US, Japan and Australia to avoid repatriating overseas funds at higher-than-desired tax rates. Before this year, Apple raised $17B in 2013, $12B in 2014 and $8B last year through US bond sales.