Microsoft jolted fixed income investors to life on Monday when it sold nearly $20bn of debt to fund its takeover of social network LinkedIn, the fifth largest corporate bond sale on record.
The sale from the triple-A rated company, one of only two US corporates to hold the opinion from Standard & Poor’s, was met with intense demand as portfolio managers search out income. Trillions of dollars of sovereign and corporate debt are currently trading with a yield below zero.
The US software maker, which agreed to a $26bn acquisition of LinkedIn in June as part of chief executive Satya Nadella’s efforts to revitalise growth, issued $19.75bn of debt with seven maturities, according to three people familiar with the deal.