Apple, the most valuable company in the world, launched a multibillion-dollar bond deal on Tuesday to fund its share buyback programme, as international debt markets began to reopen after a challenging start to the year.

全球最有价值的公司苹果(Apple)周二发起巨额债券交易，以筹集资金用于其股票回购计划。目前国际债券市场在年初遭遇挑战之后开始重新启动。

The smartphone maker¹ plans to sell $12bn worth of debt across nine tranches, with maturities² spanning between two and 30 years, according to several people familiar with the matter.

多名知情人士表示，这家智能手机制造商计划销售120亿美元的债券，分为9块，期限从2年到30年不等。

The bonds are to include both floating and fixed³ rates of interest. Bankers, in consultation⁴ with Apple, are said to have debated increasing the debt sale to as much as $15bn as order books grew, but ultimately settled on the $12bn amount, according to one of the people.

其中一位知情人士称，这些债券既包括浮动利率债券，也包括固定利率债券。随着订单簿的增长，据悉银行家曾与苹果协商，考虑将债券发行额提高至150亿美元，但最终将发行额定在了120亿美元。