If the name Apple is mentioned, consumers and investors alike are paying attention.

The share price development alone is a success story.

Since the US technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, went public in 1980, more than 40 years ago, the share price has risen by almost 150,000 percent - based on the issue price of $ 22 and adjusted for stock splits.

The share would now theoretically be quoted at around $ 33,000.

The paper currently costs just under $ 150.

With a market value of around $ 2.4 trillion, Apple is currently the most valuable company in the world ahead of Microsoft with $ 2.2 trillion.

Kerstin Papon

Editor in business.

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The bonds that Apple has been issuing regularly in various tranches and maturities for a number of years are also popular among investors. In reference to products such as the iPhone, they are often called iBonds. The group actually floats in money, which is why this issuer is given credit ratings in the high investment grade range by the rating agencies. But like many other companies, he uses the low interest rates to get cheap money. Apple plans to use the proceeds to finance share buybacks and dividends, among other things, but also any takeovers, it says. A large proportion of the Group's cash is held abroad. If Apple were to transfer the money to the United States, taxes would be high.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple's current issue is worth a total of $ 6.5 billion.

The bonds have maturities from 2028 to 2061. Interest coupons range from 1.4 percent for the bond, which Apple will repay in seven years, to 2.85 percent for the longest term of 40 years.

The interest is to be paid semi-annually from 2022 onwards.

The papers are denominated in dollars.

Therefore, for example, investors from the euro area take a currency risk.

This year the euro has lost around 3 percent of its value against the dollar.

What would be bad for travelers to the United States would increase the value of existing investments in the dollar area accordingly.

The first Apple bonds in euros were issued in 2014.

Questionable investor protection

However, it is very difficult for European investors to get hold of bonds like Apple's. "According to the European financial market guideline Mifid II, so-called basic information sheets of the issuer are necessary to protect private investors for complex financial products, which, however, are missing for many foreign bond issues", says Gerald Müller, capital market strategist at Commerzbank. These sheets provide information in compressed form about the most important characteristics of the securities such as risks, return profile and costs.

For simple bonds, product information sheets, which the financial institutions could also issue, were sufficient, says Müller. Around 80 percent of American bonds, however, have a “make-whole” clause, which makes it possible for the issuer to terminate and redeem a paper early at any time. Both companies and investors would benefit from this, but it would turn the bonds into complex financial products from the point of view of European regulators. And no American company will fill out such a sheet especially for the European market, says Müller. As a result, from the perspective of a German private investor, almost the entire American bond market would disappear.

In Europe, only professional investors have been allowed to invest in such bonds since 2017.

“To do this, investors have to meet two of three criteria,” says the Commerzbank specialist for corporate bonds, Müller.

This included a capital of at least 500,000 euros, an average of ten significant trading transactions per month and one year of professional experience in the capital market.

In addition, the current range of new issues is relatively manageable.

There are currently only a few euro bonds with small minimum denominations.