Debt issued to fund mergers and acquisitions has reached a record high, as companies look to take advantage of cheap financing ahead of a rise in US interest rates.

为并购融资发行的债券规模达到创纪录高位，原因在于各企业希望在美国加息前利用廉价融资。

The debt financing surge comes as mature companies face a growth challenge, given meagre revenue expansion. Earnings for S&P 500 companies are on track for their worst performance since the second quarter of 2009, under pressure from a strong dollar and a slowdown in China’s economy that has also weighed on commodity prices.

在债券融资飙升之际，由于收入扩张乏力，成熟公司正面临增长挑战。由于面临强劲美元以及中国经济放缓的压力，标准普尔500指数(S&P 500)成分股的收益即将创下自2009年第二季度以来最糟表现，中国经济放缓还令大宗商品价格承压。

Low borrowing costs, driven down by central banks’ quantitative easing programmes, provide an opportunity to create a return for shareholders via debt-financed mergers and acquisitions, as well as share buybacks.

央行的量化宽松计划推低了借款成本，这给通过由债券融资的并购以及股票回购为股东创造回报提供了机会。

Ahead of policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve expected in the coming months, companies have raised $290bn of debt to buy competitors this year — almost triple the level in the same period in 2014. The number of issues, however, has risen only 46 per cent, so the average size has been much larger, according to figures released on Tuesday by Dealogic, the data company.

在美联储(Fed)收紧货币政策（预计将在未来几个月开始）之前，企业今年发行了2900亿美元的债券用于收购，几乎是去年同期的3倍。然而，根据数据机构Dealogic周二公布的数据，发行总量仅增长46%，因此平均规模要比以前大的多。

“A lot of the issuance we are seeing is being driven by shareholder-friendly activity, either M&A or share repurchase,” said Richard Cheng, managing director and portfolio manager responsible for investment-grade credit at TIAA-CREF.

美国教师退休基金会(TIAA-CREF)投资级信贷业务的董事总经理兼资产组合经理理查德程(Richard Cheng)表示：“我们看到，很多债券发行是由有利于股东的活动推动的，要么是并购，要么是股票回购。”

According to the Dealogic, 83 per cent of acquisition-related bonds were sold in the US. Because shares in the US are trading at a high price — the S&P 500 is valued at an estimated 17 times earnings, according to Bloomberg — companies are having to issue more debt to complete deals.

根据Dealogic的数据，在与并购相关的债券中，有83%是在美国发行的。因为美国股价较高（根据彭博(Bloomberg)的数据，据估计，标准普尔500指数的市盈率为17倍），企业不得不发行更多债券完成并购交易。

In the first half of the year there were $987.7bn of deals in the US, according to Thomson Reuters data, the highest since records began in 1980.

根据汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)的数据，今年上半年，美国并购交易规模为9877亿美元，为自1980年有记录以来最高。