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 maker plans to sell $12bn worth of debt across nine tranches, with maturities 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 fixed rates of interest. Bankers, in consultation 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。