Antonio Rivela

Just a few lines to be positive for a change, in the fixed income markets arena.

Microsoft has just announced it will issue debt for a total consideration of 6 billion.
Standard & Poor's gave them their nicest rating AAA.
The reason why this is exciting is because, it is the first time in a decade that a firm gets the amazing AAA rating.
In "cooking" terms, this is equivalent to being awarded 3 stars by Michelin.

By the way, this is a real AAA, not a faky CDO style one. They have cash and they are almost a monopoly!

The software leader want to keep shareholders happier after a pretty disappointing year - their share has gone down massively and they failed in their $47bn bid intentions on Yahoo! Inc.
Secondly they will buy back $40bn in shares and raise their dividends pay out ratio by 18% to last year.

According to Bloomberg: "Microsoft gained $1.19 to $26.35 at 8:55 a.m. New York time before the start of Nasdaq Stock Market trading".

Looks like they want to look more like a cash flow cow than an IT growth bull for that matter.
In my humble opinion, this move is an obvious one. Corporates with Microsoft´s financial position should take advantage of the much cheaper debt markets.

No doubt others will follow shortly

Posted on 22 Septiembre 2008

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