Apple to issue bonds worth $5 billion

Tech giant Apple is expected to raise at least five billion dollars by selling bonds.

Portions of the funds raised will be used for Apple's share buyback programme, reported the BBC.

The company intends to return more than $130 billion to shareholders by the end of this year. However, the amount being raised is less than half the $12 billion generated in April 2014 when the company was last active in the US bond market.

While some of the bonds will take five years to mature, others will take as long as three decades.

Analysts said that the tech giant could increase the amount it returns to its investors to about 200 billion dollars over the next three years.

The company is planning to borrow the money because almost 90% of the cash is held outside the US and it would be required to pay the top corporate tax rate of 35% if it returned the money from abroad.

The move comes despite the company perched on a cash stack of $178 billion.