Amazon Starts $12 Billion Debt Sale as Inflation Jitters Weigh on Bonds
2022.04.11 16:22
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com — Amazon, on Monday, launched a massive billion bond sale in seven tranches, putting pressure on a bond market already depressed at the thought of March’s inflation data, which are due for publication on Tuesday.
The e-commerce and Cloud-hosting giant, which recently announced a $10 billion stock buyback program, aims to borrow a total of $12 billion through seven separate tranches, with maturities stretching up to 40 years. The sales will be handled by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), according to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission.
Unverified market talk indicated that the 10-year tranche would be priced to yield around 110 basis points over the benchmark 10-Year U.S. Treasury. while the 30-year tranche was aiming for a spread of 140 basis points and the 40-year tranche a spread of 155 basis points.
Amazon had just under $37 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet at the end of last year, along with another $60 billion in short-term investments. At the same time, it had $64 billion in long-term debt and capital lease obligations.
The sale comes as long-term interest rates in the U.S. hit their highest in over three years. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to as much as 2.78% overnight, its highest since March 2019, while the 30-Year yield rose to as high as 2.80%. Both had eased a little from their overnight highs by 8:50 AM ET (1250 GMT) on Monday.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock was down 1.2%, in line with the broad decline in Nasdaq 100 Futures.
