General Electric Co., Philip Morris International Inc. and McDonald's Corp.'s borrowing costs are verging on negative in Europe as European Central Bank quantitative easing drives yields to record lows.

The euro securities are among the first corporate bonds sold by U.S. issuers with rates quoted at less than 0.5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. General Electric's 700 million euros ($798 million) of 5.125 percent notes due in September reached a record-low yield of 0.079 percent on Feb. 10 and are now at 0.081 percent, the data show.

U.S. companies are raising capital in euros as the prospect of large-scale ECB bond purchases drives down borrowing costs in the euro region while the Federal Reserve considers increasing interest rates. American firms have issued 11.65 billion euros of bonds in 2015, the busiest start to a year since 2008, according to Bloomberg data.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world cas studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.